What If? Sword Art Online
by Derfer22
Summary: Follow the adventures with Kirito, Argo, and the rest of the gang as they progress through the floors of Aincrad. With several twists and turns throughout the death game, Can they all make it out alive?
1. A New World

Thank you for deciding to read What If? Sword Art Online.

This will be my first story, so take it easy on me at first.

My inspiration for writing this story is based from Multiple fan based FanFictions.

If you have any feedback, Ill value every word from it. Can use all the help I can get.

Hope you enjoy reading!

* * *

While running through the marketplace at the Town of Beginnings, he wasn't even breaking a sweat. He knew where to go, what to do, yet the game has only been out a few hours. Apparently someone noticed this as well, as he started running after the young kid into a tight alley way.

"Wait up!"

The black haired beta tester stopped and turned around. Noticing a player whose character looks almost like a bandit, with long pinkish hair and a bandana wrapped around his head, leaned over trying to catch his breath.

" You seem to know your way around! You must be a beta tester! I'm Klein by the way."

" I'm Kirito, nice to meet you Klein, and, uhh yeah I'm a beta tester."

Before Kirito can finish his sentence, two guys run up into the alley and stop behind Klein.

"Klein what are you doing? Can't run off on us like that! We still don't know our way around yet."

" My bad, I didn't mean to run off on you guys like that. Oh guys, this is is Kirito, he was a Beta Tester for this game. Kirito, this is Dale, and Dynamm."

As they go around meeting each other, Klein looks back at Kirito.

" Kirito, is it possible you can help teach us a bit about this game, it's our first full dives."

At first, Kirito didn't say anything. He was reluctant to help not two but three players to learn a bit about the game. If it was just Klein, maybe, but two more. After a bit of silence, his mind was made up.

" Yeah of course! Let's go to the fields right outside of town." He waves for them to follow as he guides them to the fields just outside of town.

While in the fields, Klein gets in his stance, raises his sword just over his shoulder, activating the sword skill with the pre motion, with one quick motion he lunges forward slicing the boar in half with his glowing sword as it bursts into crystals and disappear.

After Kirito shows Klein how to use sword skills, that both sat down to watch Dale and Dynamm so they can practice on the freshly spawned Frenzy Boars.

"So kirito, I know it's rude to ask, but how far did you get in the beta? I know it's rude, but I'm curious."

With kirito looking up at the sky as it starts to get dusk out.

" In two months I couldn't even get past floor 8."

As kirito finishes, both Dale and Dynamm stop practicing activating their sword skills and look at the two guys sitting down.

"Damn only floor 8?"

" Yeah, there were only 10 beta testers to make it past floor 7, and I was one of th…"

Before Kirito can finish, he was interrupted by Klein, who had his menu up with a noticeable empty slot.

"...there's...there isn't a logout button.."

Kirito was quick to react as he pulled up the menu to realize Klein was right, the logout button is gone. Both Dale and Dynamm were to busy dealing with the fresh spawns of Frenzy Boars that they didn't have time to open up their menus.

"Have you tried contacting the game master?" Kirito asks.

"Yeah but he's not answering. It has to be a glitch. I bet the server people are running frantic at the moment to fix it."

" I don't know, this game shouldn't have to many problems after a two month beta test."

At that moment all four started to glow a light blue, causing Dynamm and Dale to stop fighting after the last boar.

"Kirito… what's going on?" Dale asks.

"We are being teleported somewhere. Someone forced a teleport."

Bells started to ring as all four were instantly teleported back to the center square in the town of Beginnings. As they all come to their senses, they realize there surrounded by the rest of the 15,000 players who logged onto SAO today.

While Dale and Dynamm start to get nervous and wondering what's going on, Kirito points up in the air at a flashing red box that says *Warning*. Then all of a sudden a red hooded figure about the size of a 10 story building formed in the dusk sky.

"Welcome to Sword Art Online." As the hooded figure opened his arms out.

" My name is Akihiko Kayaba, and I am in control of this world. I'm sure some of you have noticed there is something missing from your main menu, the logout button."

About half the crowd in front of him had open their menus to see for themselves. With the crowd starting to get a bit worried and restless over the fact that there isn't a logout button.

" This isn't a glitch, this is how Sword Art Online was designed to be. You cannot log out from SAO and no one from the outside world can shut off the nerve gear. If anyone plans to do so, the nerve gear has a transmitter inside that will send a microwave signal inside your skull, suddenly frying your brain.

" This is crazy. He is nuts, right? Right kirito?" Klein asks.

"I don't know Klein, the transmitters inside the nerve gear works like a microwave.

"Couldn't someone cut or unplug it from the power source?" Dale spoke up.

" Won't work, the NerveGear has an internal battery."

"This guy is frickin insane." Klein stops as the Game Master continues to talk.

"Despite my warning, the families and friends of some of the players have attempted removing the NerveGear. Ultimately, Sword Art Online now has 150 less players than it did when it started."

Pop up videos of news reports of SAO and NerveGear start to pop up in front of the crowd,as screams start to echo in the center of town, while others start to complain about having to go back to work tomorrow. But everyone starts to quiet down as he starts to talk again.

"There is no longer any way to revive someone within the your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be deleted from the system... forever.

And the NerveGear will simultaneously destroy your brain. There is only one way for a player to escape now, you must clear the game.

Right now, you're gathered on Floor One, the lowest level of Aincrad. If you can get through the dungeon and defeat the boss, you may advance to the next floor. Defeat the boss on Floor 100, and you will clear the game."

"Are you crazy! Not even the beta testers got close to floor 100 in two months, how do you expect us to beat the game!" Klein yells out

The crowd starts to go crazy as they start to put their anger out at the hooded , Kirito, he stayed calm and collected his thoughts. He opened up his menu and started to scroll down his friends list. A smile forms on his face as he reaches the name he was looking for and with that a message has been sent.

Akihiko Kayaba speaks up.

"Before we finish the Tutorial, I have left a gift for everyone in there inventory, please open it up and take a look."

Menus pop up throughout the entire crowd, everyone eager to see the gift they just got from the GM.

"A mirror." Kirito thought to himself.

"Why would he give us a mi…" Klein stops mid sentence as he starts to scream out for kirito as he starts to glow a bright blue again.

But before Kirito can go over to help, he starts to glow a bright blue,followed by Dale and Dynamm, then the entire center square. Almost as if 20,000 flashing cameras went off at an instant.

As the lights starts to subside, kirito looks down at the mirror, noticing he doesn't look like his avatar, startling him for a second before he composes himself.

"Kirito you ok?" Klein puts a hand on his shoulder. Causing Kirito to turn to him.

"Klein is that you?"

"Kirito?"

Both gasp at their actually selves before kirito chuckles a bit at Klein's scruffy face.

"How did he do this?"

" The NerveGear has a high density signal device built inside that can can your face. But the physical properties of the rest of our bodies is a different story." Kirito explains.

"Oh the scan, it makes you touch all over your body! That must be where the physical data comes from." Klein suggests.

"But why would he do this guys? What's the point in all this?" Both Kirito and Klein turn around to Dale and Dynamm before looking back up at Kayaba.

"Right now, you are probably wondering why.

Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and NerveGear, do this? Ultimately, my goal was a simple one. The reason I created Sword Art Online was to control the fate of a world of my design. This marks the end of the Tutorial and the official launch of Sword Art Online. Good luck to everyone."

With a blink of an eye, Akihiko Kayaba vanishes.

The crowd started to go into panic mode, people screaming, going crazy, and a few fights were breaking out because of the stressed out players.

Kirito decided to take chance and followed his gut. "Come on guys follow me." He started to run through the crowded center square to the center where a small stage was, walking up the stairs followed by Klein, Dale and Dynamm. When kirito reached the top, he heard a loud thud, making him turn and look behind him, seeing Klein has fallen on the stairs, causing him to chuckle as Dale and Dynamm helped Klein up.

* * *

 ** _Argos POV_**

With almost the entire crowd in the town square going into panic mode as the GM, Akihiko Kayaba, is explaining the fact that you can't revive anyone after they die, there only seems to be a few people who can control the situation and stay calm in the time of confusion.

While leaning back against a wall around the edge of the center square, a notification pops up in front of her.

" Hmm It's Kii-bou. I wonder what he wants at this hectic time." she talks to herself as she clicks the notification to open up the message.

The message reads: " Meet me at the inn we stayed at in Horunka tonight at around 23:00. Gonna have a ton of work to do after this."

Then all of a sudden Akihiko Kayaba disappears, but she noticed something else. A group of four guys working there way up to the stage, with a young black haired player leading them.

She closes the window with the message to get a better look. "Is that Kii-bou?" She thinks to herself as he walks up the stage with the person behind him tripping on the stairs and falling on his face. "He looks younger, but it still looks like his avatar from the Beta." She continues to think to herself. She continues to watch him as he opens up a menu realizing that he's turning on the speaker so everyone can hear him

"Everyone listen up! I'm Kirito, I'm a beta tester for this game. For us the Tutorial has just started, there's so much everyone needs to know before leaving."

" Shit, it's Kii-bou, I hate being right all the time." She thinks to herself as she gets up off the wall she was leaning against and tries to make her way through the crowd to the stage.

" To Akihiko Kayaba, this is just a game, but to all of us, it's our lives. We need to band together and help each other out to get through this game alive. If he is telling the truth about all this, which I believe he is, we need to follow this one code. *Never let anyone's HP bar hit 0. Some of you might know, but there are skills that you can level up throughout this game like strength and agility. But there's an unlimited amount of them, like fishing, cooking, blacksmithing, and all other types than just fighting skills. To level up these skills, you need to keep practicing and working with the skill to also get XP to level yourself up. Now there are Sword Skills, to activate them you have to do a specific motion for each skill to activate it. Klein here will demonstrate how to activate a sword skill."

With Klein and Dale showing the crowd how to activate sword skills, I reach the stairs to the stage as I start walking up them, but when reaching the top, someone stopped me in my tracks, it was Kirito. He smiled down at me and put his hand out to me to help me up. After helping me up the stage, he walks back to the center of the stage, I followed behind him.

" The only way to clear a floor is to defeat the floor boss in the dungeon, first you have to find the boss room. After floor 1 there will be field bosses that have to be defeated first to be able to enter the labyrinth."

As kirito finished talking, I was turning on the speaker in my interactive menu that I popped open.

" I'm Argo, I'm also a beta tester. I was writing guide books and gave out information for quests and other stuff about the game during the entire beta. We will be giving out guidebooks for free for everyone to use. Every five days we will update it with all the new information we find. Make sure everyone picks up the guide books in the NPC shops before you leave."

"That will conclude the rest of the Tutorial. Be safe everyone!" Kirito says before both of them turned off there most of the crowd applauding them for their actions, but the crowd slowly thins out as they all go on there way through the markets in the town. Everyone walked towards the stairs but stop.

"Kii-bou, how stupid are you for doing that?" I turn to him and look at him with a serious look on my face, but instantly turns into a playful one as I quickly lean in, hugging him tightly. " But it was a very brave thing to do." She pulls away as Klein, Dale and Dynamm walk up to them.

* * *

 ** _Kirito POV_**

I hardly ever see this enduring side of Argo, she normal tries to beat us up for information. As she quickly let's go and steps back a step from the hug, Klein and the guys come walking up to us, Klein patting my shoulder." Good stuff out there Kirito, you're a lifesaver to some of these people for that."

"So what's next?" Dale asked.

"You three should probably find the rest of your friends while you can Klein. But first, Argo, this is Klein and his buddies Dale and Dynamm. We met before all this craziness happened today. Guys she's the best Info Broker in the game."

Argo lets out a slight blush before greeting all three of them before she has to say her goodbyes. " Kii-bou I'll see you tonight, I need to get some information before I head over."

" See ya Argo. Klein we are meeting up at an inn in the next town, Horunka. Why don't you go find your friends and meet us there tonight. I have a quest and a few things to do before I head over."

Klein sticks his hand out to me while I do the same, shaking his hand."Thanks for everything you've done Kirito, we will see you in Horunka with the rest of the gang with us." With that, Klein and his two friends disappear into the crowd as Kirito makes his way out of the center square.

'' I will, no, WE will not be defeated by this death game.''


	2. Friends

Tried to put this chapter out yesterday night, but was too exhausted.

Hope you enjoy!

* * *

November 13, 2020

On the way back to town, the two of us had to walk back to the Town of Beginnings to get some info for the guide book that we update every five far it's been a week and there had only been 50 deaths after the Tutorial we gave out. It's been a rough week with so many deaths and names being inscribed on The Wall, a granite wall that automatically inscribes the names of the players who died on each floor. About 90% of the 50 players that were added on that wall were beta testers for this death game. We came to a conclusion that most of them left as soon as possible from the town of Beginnings and didn't stay for our tutorial to get a head start. As we start to get close to the town, the bright lights from it shine in the dark night sky.

"Hey Argo, I got an errand to run, you ok with getting the information you need while I go look for something and we can meet back up before we go?" I mumble to argo while both of us walk through the entrance to the town.

She nods her head once in agreement." Sure Kii-bou, I'll message you when I'm done." We both separate and walk into different directions.

"Man this place is busy for being around dinner time." Talking to myself while walking through a surprisingly busy market at night, dodging both players and NPCs along the way, I notice from the corner of my eye that there was a young girl in an alleyway all by herself, sobbing as she hides her head in her hands. " I can't just leave someone like that without trying to help." I thought to myself. I decided to walk over to her and sit down on the ground next to her and lean back on the wall.

She has yet to notice that I sat down next to her since she kept her face covered with her hands the entire time. "Everything ok?" I said quietly while looking down at her.

She was a bit startled at first, causing her head to jump up and turned her head to face me and looks straight at me while nodding her head from side to side. " No... no I'm not. But why would you care, no one does. Everyone is to worried about themselves to care." She says as tears fall down her cheeks but start crystalize and vanish in the thin air.

"So what's your name? I'm Kirito." Trying to keep her mind focused on something else.

"I... I'm Silica, wait your...your Kirito? The one who did the Tutorial?" she says as she wipes the wet lines off her cheek.

I smile at her as she stops crying while I nod my head. " The same one. Was stupid of me right?"

She seems to disagree. " No… It was very brave of you to do that for everyone, you saved a lot of lives."

" Still tho, couldn't save them all... Some of the beta testers decided not to listen to me and ended up on The Wall."

"Don't blame yourself Kirito, some people just don't listen. Ultimately getting themselves killed. You did the best you could with what you had available." Her tone of voice rose a bit.

" Maybe you're right Silica."

A few minutes past while we both sat quietly.

I stand back up and put my hand down for her. " Come walk with me Silica. Sometimes it's best to keep yourself occupied, so you don't have time to think about it. Don't need to give into this death game. Just stay true to yourself Silica."

She hesitates for a bit but decides to take a leap of faith, grabbing onto my hand as she stands up and starts to walk by my side through the crowded street, continuously trying to avoid any NPCs who are trying to sell unnecessary items to them.

" You know, you're not the only one who decided to stay at the Town of Beginnings instead of fighting to survive. Don't beat yourself up over it. Everyone has their own opinion and ideas to get through this game.

She continues to look down at the ground while walking with me through the crowds. " It's not that I want to stay here, I've tried traveling over to the next town, but all the parties I've been with just want me as their mascot.." She speaks up as she stops walking and looks up to see Kirito turn and walk towards an open booth with what looks like a blacksmith running it.

As both of us get closer, she starts to notice the blacksmith isn't an NPC, but it's a girl with bright pink hair hitting the metals on the anvil.

"Kirito!" The girl screams out as she almost instantly stops her work and walks over to the counter to both of them.

"Seems like work is a bit slow around here, sounds like you need a new customer." While I look down at Silica.

With Silica a bit confused on what I was trying to do at the moment." Silica, this is Lis, the best blacksmith in Aincrad, Lis this is Silica. She's in need of the best light armor you got and the best dagger you can make at the moment."

I open up my menu, pull out a dagger that a mob dropped earlier this week, and handed it the blacksmith." You can use this as a base for the dagger, it's got some good stats but it has no use for me." Then after taking out the rest of the materials to finish off the dagger from the menu and handing it to the blacksmith. "This should be enough material for you to make a good dagger right Lis? Well at least for floor 1 stats."

She looks and examines all the metals I gave her as she then looks up and gives us a smile. " Let me see what I can do, while I work, why don't you, Silica, go look at my light armor and see what you like." She says as she turns towards the back of the tent and gets to work. Suddenly after she disappears into the back tent, we can start to here her constantly hammering away at her work.

As we open up a menu for both of us to see to look at her light armor. Since it's still the first floor, most of the armor has the same stats due to the floor stats. " See any you like Silica?" As she scrolls through then suddenly stops and a smile forms on her face while she stops scrolling her finger down the menu to the set of light armor thay had caught her attention. She clicks it to get a better look at it. "This one." She says. It has a silver breastplate and pauldrons, but it came with a red robe that exposes her shoulders and a black skirt. She smiles up at me as she mumbles," you don't have to do this for me ya know."

" But I want to, plus i don't mind at all." While picking out the armor that Silica has chosen and wait for Lis to get back with her work.

Not even 5 minutes after Silica picked out the armor she liked, the hammering had stopped. Then all of a sudden, Lis walks back up to the counter after the countless hammering and puts a Black dagger, with a white outline on the handle out on the counter for us to see. Neither myself, or Silica have seen a dagger like this before now, we both had our mouths dropped from just looking at it. Then we watched as Lis opened the menu to the dagger and flipped it towards up to see.

"It's called the Shadow Dagger. The first of its kind." She says.

Level 8 Dagger with 5 Damage and a 3 in speed. "These stats are off the chart for a dagger made on the first floor. Silica this dagger should hold it's own up to floor 8 with only minor upgrades." I look back at Lis as I pulled out my Anneal Blade and went to hand it to her. "Lis is it possible you can upgrade my Anneal Blade. Upgrade in Durability and Defense."She quickly runs off with his sword and finishes up the upgrades.

As I finish paying Lis for the Armor, the dagger, my upgraded Anneal Blade, not to mention giving the armor and the dagger to Silica. Myself and Lis started to talk as we unnoticeable didn't see Silica go through her menu an equip her new armor and dagger.

"Lis you should move onto the next town Horunka. In a couple days we are moving to Tolbana. Tonight we will be heading back to Horunka if you want to tag along."

" I have quite a bit of work to do but I'll message you if I can get it all done before you head out." Lis says to me as I nod in agreement.

"Well, we better get going Silica, I'll see ya later Lis."

" Was nice to meet you Lis, thanks for everything!" Silica speaks up while waving at the pink haired blacksmith.

As we turn around and start to walk away, I notice a shady character in a black hooded poncho looking our way. "Why would someone be watching us? Would it be because of her?" I thought to myself before noticing that the hooded figure has disappeared when I looked away for just a second l. I was oblivious of Silica who was talking to me the whole entire time which got me out of my trance.

" Sorry, what was that Silica?"

" Your going to the next city, can you take me with you Kirito?

Her response caught my attention, causing me to stop walking and turn to her. "Mentally I don't think you're ready to move to the next town Silica. You need to be in a right state of mind, before heading out. I don't want anything to happen to you. I know a place where you can stay here for a bit, rest up,get some food in you,and make a couple friends that might help you level up outside of town for a few days. When I come back in 5 days to help Argo with the guide book, we can talk about you coming back with us. How's that sound?"

She wanted to get out of this town as fast as possible. From all the abuse she has gotten from the other players, I can see why, but she needs to be ready when she moves on from this town. She looked a bit sad at first but after realizing the truth behind my words, but ended up smiling up at me after a couple of minutes of walking.

" Five days?"

"Yeah I'll be back in five days, I promise. Come on, let's get going before it gets to late."

As we continue to walk down the streets, some of the street lights start to flicker on and off while it gets later and later by the minute. The streets are fairly empty due to players eating dinner or there all in there rented rooms for the night. Not many people hang out outside at night due to the stronger mobs that normally spawn outside the safe zone of the town at night.

" So this place I'm taking you to is a church like building, but a friend of mine bought it out, so she can help house the younger players who are too young to really play this game. She normally walks the streets looking for younger players and try to help them out. Most of them are probably younger than you but there's a couple of them that are close to your age."

As we make it to the church, we didn't even have to knock on the door. While walking up to the door, it swung open. Two kids around the age of 10 ran out yelling "KIRITO! YOUR BACK!" suddenly two kids run out hugging me tightly almost pushing me onto the ground from the force of there running hug.

"Hey guys! It's only been a few days! Is Sasha here? I ask the two kids.

One of them quickly runs back into the house, screaming for Sasha. " MISS SASHA, MISS SASHA, KIRITO IS HERE." While the other quickly grabs my hand, almost dragging me into the house. All i can hear behind me is a bunch of giggles from Silica, following us into the church, finding our way to Sasha.

" Hey Kirito, here for your normal trip?" Sasha asks while walking up to us.

I nod my head as i look at her, all while hugging one of the kids that came up to me.

" I also brought a friend that's been out on the streets alone since the day we all got stuck in this death game. Hoping that you can help her get back onto two feet."

Silica finally moved out from behind me and waved at the young woman wearing a long navy blue dress.

" Hi I'm Silica." She says with a smile on her face.

"Well it's nice to meet you Silica, I'm Sasha! We would be more than happy to have you. Even if it's just for a little bit. Here follow me and I can show you around.

Watching them all walk away through the house as Sasha shows Silica around, suddenly a pop up notification went up infront of me. I got a message. It was Argo.

" Kii-bou, just finished up, I'll be at the Northeastern entrance to the city in about 5 minutes. I have a friend who's gonna join us to get over to the next town."

" I'll meet you there, Lis might be joining us as well." Sending my response to her as Silica and Sasha make there way back to where I was when i entered the house just at the moment I close my message menu.

" So what do you think Silica? Think you'll be fine staying here for a little bit?"

She looks around the place for a bit, then at Sasha, then back at me, and she starts to smile. "Yeah i think i can, this place seems really nice compared to where ive been staying at! Thank you both for helping me out, Kirito, Sasha. It feels like my life has flipped in a matter of a few hours!"

"Anything we can do help, even if its just to stay for a couple days. " Sasha speaks up.

"Hate to say it Silica but i have to start going back to Horunka before it gets to late."

Silica starts to pout just a bit but understands that I cant stay for long. " I'll see you in five days?" She speaks up.

" Yeah of course and when i get back you can come with us over to the next town, most likely it'll be Tolbana by then! But if you need me before than you can just message me or Lis since you friended both of us earlier. I guess I'll see you both in a couple days!"

Before I could turn around, Silica has ran up to me trapping me in a tight hug. " Thank you so much Kirito, for everything you have done!" Of course i couldn't resist her so I gave her a tight hug back before having to leave.

Man, I didn't realize how late it was when i was walking through the now almost silent Town of Beginnings being that its almost Midnight. Luckily I wasn't very far from the Northeastern Path that leads out of town towards Horunka. Right after making it around the last corner of the building that blocks the view of the entrance to the town, I could see the few people waiting for me. Also seemed like Lis made it for the trip back.

"Sorry if I made you all to wait for to long, the time just got away from me." I say to the group of three while I walk up to them.

"Its all good man, we have only been here for just a few minutes" The player I haven't met or seen in this game yet spoke up. A surprisingly huge player, probably one of the tallest players I've seen in the game so far. A few seconds later, he put his hand out to me. " Its nice to finally meet you Kirito, I'm Agil. Argo here has told me a lot about you, with a small fee of course." He gives a dirty look to Argo while he finishes up his sentence as I reach out shaking his hand. Argo couldn't help but grin at the both of us.

" Nice to meet you Agil. That's typical Argo for you."

After we all finish our introductions, the moment we turned around to walk out of the safe zone in the outskirts of Town of Beginnings, but we suddenly noticed a pair of players just standing there and watching us while standing just outside the safe zone.

Lis almost jumped out of her characters outfit. Argo pulled out her dagger instantly. But myself and Agil had the same idea. We both instantly jump in front of both Lis and Argo as quick as we possibly could, both drawing our weapons. I had pulled out my trusty Anneal Blade while Agil pulls out this huge two handed battle axe.

Almost seemed like the pair was waiting for us to get out of the safe zone. One of them was wearing a dark hooded poncho, the other with a black hooded cloak, both with their swords drawn and I couldn't see either of their faces. The player in the cloak had a noticeable Estoc while the other player had a dagger of some kind.

The two players didn't bother to say anything, just stood there and watched us.

"You guys know you can't hurt us in a safe zone, right?" Lis spoke up. Someone had to, it was silent for a good eight minutes.

''What do we do? Should we just walk by or what?'' Lis continued to talk.

''Well there is only just two of them. With us four together, they wouldn't have a chance against us.'' Agil brought up.

I decided to step a bit forward, almost out of the safe zone but stopping right before the safe zone ends with the other three following suit.

With a few more minutes of silence going by, the two decided to sheath their swords and slowly start walking towards our direction.

As a group, we moved to the side to let them walk by us, keeping our swords drawn while the two players walk by us without a single word.

Suddenly I noticed one of them stopped while we were sheathing our swords and battle axes.

But after realizing what he said, I was instantly in shock.

"I'll see you around... Kirito."

* * *

Sorry if it seems kinda rushed. Am still in introduction part of the story.


	3. Reunion

_First off, I apologize for taking so long to put this out. I have been very busy with work and a few other things im involved in. Ever since the new year, I havent had much time to sit down and write this. Hopefully Ill start getting a bit more time to myself to keep pushing these chapters out for everyone to enjoy!_

 _Please Enjoy this new chapter!_

 _ **November 18, 2020**_

 ** _Silica POV_**

Even though he told me to train with other players, I've found it easier to train by myself in the fields outside of town. Just a couple hours of training can be exhausting when your by yourself. But it does come with its perks, you don't have to share the XP and Col that drops with other party members. While quickly slashing through the Frenzy boar, watching it explode into tiny little crystal-like polygons and my Shadow Dagger dimming back to its normal state after using the sword skill that caused it to glow a neon purple.

Not many people seem to go out in the fields much outside the Town of Beginnings anymore. "Another quiet day in the fields." I mumble to myself while looking around the field to see if anyone was around, but yet I was alone with no one else in view except a couple of fresh spawned Frenzy boars.

" Whew, maybe I should take a little break, I'm exhausted." Talking to myself again as i look at the pop up menu that showed the XP and Col that the frenzy boar dropped. After looking around for a bit, I noticed a spot where the frenzy boar weren't constantly spawning at. Deciding to walk over to a tree in the field I was grinding in and sitting down next to it for a short break in the shade. " I wonder if the weather is like this on every floor, my cat would love it here." Letting out a quiet sigh while looking up at the clear blue sky with a few clouds out which hasn't changed in the two weeks we have been in this death game. " Come to think of it, I don't want her to suffer here with me. I just miss her."

Shaking my head side to side quickly to get these thoughts out of my head. Then suddenly, my stomach growled. The only food I brought with me was a roll of this nasty in-game bread that Sasha gave me and this small bag of Peanuts that I picked up from an NPC shop. I ended up deciding I'll start with the bread first after opening up my menu to get said bread.

" I've never liked this bread, it's so bland." Talking to myself between bites. The bread just gets nastier with each bite I take. While eating the bread that was in one hand, I used the other to open up my menu and scroll to my messages, specifically to the message that Argo sent me. She friended me the day after Kirito left in case I needed any information about quests and monster spawns around here. So far her information has been helpful with the more unknown spawn locations. " Kii-bou is busy dealing with the spawning mobs. We will be there in about an hour or so Si-chan." The message she wrote.

While finishing up my bread, I was just glancing around my stats. Feeling myself getting stronger is enjoyable even if I only went up a few levels in the past five days. After a few minutes, I ended up closing my menu while thinking to myself. "She sent that message to me around thirty minutes ago. I can probably kill a few more of those boars before I head back so I don't have to wait for them and can keep myself busy." Pulling out the peanuts that I recently bought, hoping it'll taste better than the bland bread I just ate.

Suddenly I start to hear voices in the distance. Not just one person,but a group. After looking around, to the left and then to the right, I start to see a group walk out of the forest and walking through the field towards the Town of Beginnings. Five of them popped out of the forest. They didn't notice me but almost seemed like they were rushing back to town. From what it seems like by there weapons, they only had one forward with multiple damage dealers that stay behind him. With how far they are away from me, I could only notice a few words from what they were saying. I heard: "floor 3... Guild... name... ". Then one of them motioned for them to stop. The same player who stopped them started to talk, " Moonlit... Cats...". From what it seems like, the others agreed with him before they went back on there way to town and disappearing in the distance.

Then the branches above me starts to rustle around, causing me to look up. I couldn't tell at first, but something was falling from the top of the tree. Then out of the corner of my eye, I see a light blue spec fall past the lowest branch which is still really high. The blue spec wasn't stopping, suddenly it reached the bottom of the tree where I was taking a break. It almost looks like a flying lizard, no, a tiny dragon. After looking at it for a minute or two as it lays there on the ground almost a foot away from me, it's health bar popped up above it, it was draining, but luckily it stopped just as it hit in the yellow.

"Hey there little guy." At first I tried putting my hand out to it, but after the tiny beast realized what had happened, letting out a quiet growl while it tried to push itself away from be but was to exhausted and tired to do so. The little dragon just sat there, resting up, and just staring at me carefully watching my every move. I decided to just continue on with eating some of my peanuts. With a handful of Peanuts in my hand, I look over at the tiny beast which was staring at my hand, not me but my hand. Slowly moving my hand over to the creature, holding my hand out to see if it's interested in eating any peanuts. His head instantly popped up, leaning into my hand to grab a few peanuts with it's mouth and eating them. After the little creature took a step back, I went ahead and poured the rest of my peanuts on the ground in a pile in between us for him to eat. " Here you go buddy." While he was eating I went ahead and decided to get up and get a bit more grinding in before having to leave.

As I parry the Frenzy boars attack, I looked to my left to see if the tiny dragon was still there, but he wasn't. Suddenly I was hit from my right by another Frenzy boar, pushing me onto the ground, only dropping a little bit of my health. Both the boars back up a bit to get a running start for the next attack from the same direction. While they both run towards me for another attack, I don't have enough time to get up to defend both of only possible action I could do was to hold my dagger up to try and block one of the attacks. Then all of a sudden, just as the boars were bout to hit me, a ball of blue fire hits the ground in between myself and the boars and stopping them in there tracks. The little dragon flew by us in a quick pace, giving me enough time to stand up and jump over the in mid air, I pull my dagger up a bit which activated a sword skill before slicing my dagger through one of the boar as I run by it, causing it to explode into tiny crystal polygons. Before the other Frenzy boar realized what happened, the dragon has circled the boar with it's blue fire, giving me to the time to jump over to the boar and slicing through it in half with the sword skill, Piercing Edge.

With the crystal polygons disappearing, I was able to notice the little dragon flying down to me. " Thanks for the help little buddy!" Speaking to the small beast as it lands on my shoulder while it shoots some kind of light from it's mouth at me. That's when I noticed at the top left where my health was at, that the little beast was healing me. " Looks like I found a new friend." I say as I reach up patting it's head softly. With that a pop up display came up with the words: Tamed Little Feathered Dragon.

" Well if we are gonna be going through this game together, I think we should have a name picked out for you. Hmm how about Pina. What do you think about that for your new name? " The little dragon nudged into my shoulder for approval before resting down on it. A second health bar popped up right below mine with the name " Pina".

" Shoot Pina we better get going, I'm sure the others are waiting for us." I speak up while I start to make my way out of the field and run towards the town with Pina flying by my side the entire way back to town.

* * *

 _ **Kirito POV**_

"I never knew selling information to someone can take this long." I talk to myself while constantly looking up at the time, watching it go by so slowly almost as if it was in slow motion. Normally I don't try to get involved with Argo and her meetings with other players. Most of the time she usually lets people know about any new quests that are recently discovered or the best spots to grind. But this time was different. She's inside talking to three players who each have there own parties and are normally out in the dungeon on this floor trying to map out the entire dungeon. From what Argo has told me, the boss room has yet to be discovered. Even I haven't found it yet, but I still didn't want to sit in the meeting unless I had to. I decided to open my stats menu up, scrolling through my stats and learned sword skills. At first while Argo went to this meeting of hers, I went to Sashas place to see if Silica was there. But she wasn't, Sasha said she went out in the fields for a bit. That's why I made my way back here, leaning against the wall right outside where Argo is having her meeting. I'll just let her find me instead.

After a few minutes went by, I heard a few players in the distance yelling out " Aye, watch where you're going.". While looking down the street in the general direction where the commotion was coming from, that's when I noticed it was Silica running through the streets, and a blue flying beast flying by her side. "What is that?" I talk to myself. Before I knew it, I was getting hugged by Silica while her friend sat there on my shoulder.

" Its good to see you Silica. I told you I'd come back. " I said with a smile as she lets go of me and steps back a bit.

" I've never doubted you for a second Kirito." Was Silicas response. She looked so happy, looking like she was almost on the verge of crying.

" So who's your little friend here?" I ask while putting my hand up, petting the little beasts head softly while it nudged into my hand. Just with a small motion like that was enough to pop up a menu in front of me.

It wrote: "Tamed feathered Dragon."

" Hm. I didn't know you could tame beasts in this game. That's a first Silica." I spoke up

" This is Pina! She helped me with a few frenzy boars earlier and decided to tag along with me. Oh! And she likes peanuts!" She responded as Pina flies over to her chest with Silica catching Pina. " So where's Argo? I thought she came with you?"

" She's inside talking to a few players, trying to get any information about the boss room and probably getting names of the top players so far to get ready for a raiding party in the couple weeks." I spoke up while rubbing the back of my neck.

" Wait, so your saying the top players are getting ready to defeat the floor boss soon?"

" Yes and no. No one has found the boss room yet. So until someone finds the room, we are stuck on this floor and just continue to level up as much as we can."

" You were in the beta, right Kirito? Shouldn't you know where the boss room is from playing in the beta? "

" Yeah.. but that's the first place most of the beta testers looked at, myself included. Kayaba moved it to a different location in the dungeon and he most likely did so on every floor that we got through in the beta.''

'' Well Kirito, I'm sure someone will find it and my bet is on you, Kirito. But anyways, so which town are you living in now Kirito?"

" We are in Tolbana, the closest city to the floors dungeon. We got there a couple days ago and we all share a big rented room in the inn. Your welcome to come stay with us Silica, we saved a spot for you! "

Before she could respond, something caught her attention. She was looking at something that seemed to be a few feet above me. She fell into silence and almost seemed like look and acted astonished to what caught her eye. That's when I noticed, thanks to the Aincrads weather, the sun was behind me and whatever that higher than me created a shadow to my left on the ground. But it wasn't above me, it was a shadow of a person behind me. Although it was a surprisingly a huge shadow, that caught my eye.

"Kirito, my man, how's it going?"

That's when I realized who it was, only one player I know of can be so tall to make a shadow like that.

"Agil, what are you doing in the starting town? Haven't you been in Horunka, working on your trade?" I turn around facing him but having to look straight up to do so.

" Well I was running out of supplies and a few of them can only be found in the market in this town. And You? "

I pointed at the door of the building that Argo was having her meeting at. " Argo is in a meeting with a few players. Oh by the way, Agil this Silica."

Both Agil and myself couldn't help but smile from the way Silica introduces herself. It's only been about a week, but she's turned herself completely around. With how she carries herself and her attitude to most challenges have changed tremendously. All it took from her was standing straight up, facing up at him with her eyes closed and smiling, all while waving her hand in Agils direct. " It's so nice to meet you Agil."

" You to Silica. If Kirito ever bothers you, come to me and I'll straighten him out for ya." He responded while letting out a slight chuckle and giving me a little shove. That's when I noticed out of the corner of my eye, two familiar players walked by us without stopping. I don't know who they are or howe they look, but I remember how they dressed. Both players were wearing black ponchos. They didn't bother to look over at us, they just continued walking.

Suddenly three players, one by one walk out of the building we were waiting at. Behind them three was Argo, who almost seemed like she was at a lost for words.

" Get any good info Argo? " I decided to break the silence that has fallen on all four of us.

" That'll cost you Kii-bou."She said with a slight grin. That's the Argo we all know.

" Well I do pay for your part of rent for our rooms in the Inn."

She couldn't help but pout at that response as she tries to figure out a way around it. But ends up nodding her head side to side. " Nope, neither of the three parties had found the boss room yet. But all three are gonna start working together to find the boss room. They decided, if they have found it by the first day of December, each group will get more players and work all day and night to find it."Another few minutes of silence fallen on us again.

"Sooner or later some one will find it, right guys!?" Silica spoke up trying to brighten the mood." I'm sure of it!" Everyone broke out in happiness as every one of us agrees with her.

"Come on guys lets go back to the Inn in Tolbana. I spoke up.

* * *

 _ **November 28, 2020**_

 ** _Kiritos POV_**

As of lately, the dungeon has been quite busy. Mostly parties have been mapping out the last five floors in the labyrinth for the boss room. It's been a month since this death game came out and the boss room has yet to be discovered. The three mapping parties have been working day and night to find this Boss room. But today was different. There are 3 more floors that have been untouched by any player so far in the labyrinth. From what I know, only one of the mapping parties will be out today, and they are on floor 22 as of now. Normally most of the other players are grinding in the lower floors. That's why I have been grinding on the higher floors. Even now on floor 21, I have yet to see any other players.

While lifting my sword upwards in a horizontal motion, causing my sword to turn a light blue. I push myself forward with my right foot towards the Ruin Kobold Trooper, slashing up it's body with the sword skill Horizontal. Exploding into a cloud of crystal polygons all while my Anneal Blades color dies down to its original state. Looking up at the top right corner of my hub for the time. 17:28. " It's getting pretty late, I should probably start heading down to get out of here." I speak to myself.

Surprisingly, as I pass through each floor going down, it took about eight floors for me to actually see a party of players grinding. Taking about forty-five minutes to casually walk out of the dungeon. Luckily for me it wasn't completely dark out. It was around dusk, getting dark but not dark out yet. Hopefully it doesn't get completely pitch black out till I get back to town which takes a good thirty minute walk to get back to.

The exact moment I walked out of the dungeon, a notification popped up in front of me. It was a message from Liz.

" Watch out Kirito, Klein is looking for you. He seems kind of mad? "

" It must be from bailing on them when they were asking me to grind with them." I speak to myself while walking back to town.

Tolbana was a good decent 30 minute walk, which gave me enough time to organize the drops that I just got from all the Ruin Kobold Troopers. From low level weapons, to a couple of light health potions, and to even a few oddly named meat. Not to mention the Col and Xp I got from each one of those troopers. Most weapons I normally get I usually hand over to Agil to sell to other players if don't have any use for the weapons. Walking into the town of Tolbana, usually there's not to much of any crowds out in the streets. But these past few days seemed like the number of players who moved to this town have tripled. Most players in Tolbana seem to be in parties of five or six other players. When there is hundreds of players in one small area, you'd think it would be easy to avoid one person specifically. Nope.

I decided to go drop by Agils shop to drop some of these drops off to him. These past few days, hes been so busy his inventory was almost wiped completely clean. Even Silica has been helping him out at the shop when she can, but it almost seems like they need a third person helping out help out around the shop some days. While walking through the market to Agils temporary shop, which is about seven spots away from Liz's tent. Trying to slide between players and the crowds as I make my way to their stand. Just as I was about ten feet away from the stand, both Agil and Silica noticed I was walking towards them as Silica started waving towards me with Pina flying around her in a playful manner. Suddenly, someone pushed me, before I knew it I was in a choke hold. The person didn't have me in a tight grip and didn't seem to want to hurt me.

" This is what you little punk ass gets for leaving us in the dungeon like that'' It was Klein, he started to drag me backwards through the crowd towards what seemed like Lizs tent. A notification popped up on my screen saying, " Harassment Prevention code. Dismiss or seek further action.'' . Since it was Klein, I just dismissed it, causing the notification to go away. All i could see was Silica gasping, while covering her mouth, and Agil acting astonishingly surprised as I am getting dragged away from them. He finally let go of me after he dragged me into Liz's tent. I finally stood back up, noticing Liz and the player she was helping was staring at us. Her costumer was wearing a scarlet colored hooded poncho and was a female.

"Thanks for the Iron Rapier Liz, I'll be back soon for a few upgrades. I'm going to go give it a try for a bit.'' She spoke to Liz before making her way to where Klein and myself were standing.

"See ya later Asuna, stay safe out there.'' Liz responded.

"Sorry about all that.'' I spoke up to her while she walks by us towards the exit. Rubbing the back of my neck because of the awkwardness.

" Its fine." She responds as she walks out of the tent.

'The hell was that for Klein?''I say while pushing him a bit as i walk over to Liz.

Before he could even talk, Pina flew in the tent with Silica and Agil barging in behind Pina inside Liz's shop.

" Are you both stupid or something?'' Agil spoke up

" This guy baled on me and the guys today in the dungeon. He just disappeared on us." Klein responded

'' Does that give you the right to act like a dummy Klein." Silica spoke up.

'' YESS it does!" Klein pouts slightly with Silica making a good point.

I went ahead and shrugged it all off as I walk over to Agil, opening up my menu and sending a trade request. " Here Agil, I got most of these drops on floor 21 in the dungeon.'' After he accepted the trade request, I sent him almost every drop I got besides a few decent potions.

''Man, that's a ton of drops, did you go up a level? Klein spoke up.

" Yeah I did Klein. I'm now at Level 10.''

Seemed like almost every ones mouths had dropped at an instant, including Liz. All i could do was stand there and rub the back of my neck. '' What guys? You all seem so surprised I'm at level 10.'' I spoke up.

'' Well it is kinda high compared to everyone else, I mean I just hit level 7 just before leaving the dungeon and try to look for you.'' Klein responded

" Both myself and Silica are level sixes.'' Agil talks.

'' I'm only level 5, your double my level Kirito.'' Liz spoke up after Agil.

After a few hours of talking for a bit, we all started to get a bit sleepy. It has gotten late and its been a very busy day for all of us. Klein was the first one to fall asleep on us. He ended up sitting on the ground and lean back against the wall when he fell asleep. Both Silica and Liz shared a bench while falling asleep on Liz's shoulder. At some point, since Liz had to stay quiet while Silica is asleep, it was just me and Agil as Pina was wide awake, laying on my shoulder. Most of the time myself and Agil just talked about the Boss Raid and what the first floor boss was like on this floor from the beta.

" Alright Kirito, your gonna carry Silica back to the inn right?" Liz Whispered to us since she couldn't move.

I went ahead and walked over to where they were sitting with Pina sitting on my shoulder this entire time. I reached one arm under Silica's knees and the other behind her back as i pick her up and wait for the others.

'' Agil! you cant just leave Klein here by himself Pick him up!'' I whispered to him.

He at first hesitated and seemed to groan a bit in displeasure. But in the end, he picked him up and carried him over one of his shoulders.

" Lets go guys '' Liz says as we all start to walk down the streets toward the inn. Luckily for us, it only took about 5 minutes to get there due to the streets being almost completely empty other then a few NPCs. When we finally reached our room, Liz went ahead and opened it for us. The Room we had for our Inn had several rooms in it. Has a huge space in the middle that is combined with a kitchen that is separate from the living and dining room area. Klein and all his buddies shared one big room for all of them. With myself and Agil sharing a room. While all the girls share a room, Silica, Argo, and Liz. But with how the system works in SAO, I cant open the door to Kleins room or Lizs room without them opening the door for me or giving me permission to do so with the system.

After Agil walks into the living area, he almost instantly drops Klein on the floor and walks towards our opened the door before me made a waving hand gesture to resemble the phrase''Whatever'' before walking in his room and closing the door behind him. Surprisingly though, his fall didn't make much noise when he hit the floor. But it was a hard enough fall to wake him up. Both myself and Liz turned back and when we finally realized what happened, both us struggled to hold our laughter. Klein was more confused on how he got to the inn than how he woke up. He just looked around and mumbled " The Hell" to himself. After a bit he ended up walking to his room to go back to sleep. I followed Liz to there room and followed her in as she opened the door for me. I noticed Argo was fast asleep over on her bed. Pina flew off my shoulder and after I lied Silica down on her bed, Pina snuggled up to her sleeping tamer. Liz closed the door behind me after mouthing the words " Goodnight Kirito" to me. I walked out to the living area before making my way to the door. I look back at the room we had been renting, then leaving the room and making my way back outside to streets of Tolbana. I take one more look back at the inn, before making my way down the silent streets of Tolbana. With the only lights lighting up the dark was a few street lanterns and the clear night sky above me.


	4. The Fencer and the Swordsman

**_November 29 2022_**

 ** _Argos POV_**

The worst part about getting this information about quests is that sometimes I have to do some of these quests that I only know a small bit of information about because it's been changed from what it was in the beta. Lately I've noticed there has been slight changes from the beta in the last few quests I've been working on. Even just a slight falsehood of information in my book can cause players to jump out at the beta testers. Thankfully with the help of a few other beta testers, the few that are still alive, we have been able to be fairly accurate so far in the guide book. Not to mention rare materials that were normally found in the higher floors of the beta. Ive heard a few rumors of a cave with the rare stone from a few different players. Luckily out of all the players who knew about it, were Beta Testers.

After a few hours of walking in this dense forest, I finally found the entrance to the cave. While standing above the cave entrance on top of a small hill, all I noticed was a bright light coming from underneath myself, out of the cave. '' I guess the rumors were true.'' I spoke to myself before looking around. That was when i noticed a player a few feet away from the entrance, leaning against the wall and catching there breath. I jumped off the top of the cave down to where the entrance and player was sitting at. It didn't take long for the player to look up at me, but was seemingly to tired to act on it. That's when i noticed two things, one shes a girl, two she had a rapier on the ground next to her. But she had moved her hand over to the handle to her rapier, but not lifting it off the ground.

''Relax Fencer-San, I'm just an info broker, I'm not gonna do anything.'' Her reaction to my response was letting go of her rapier, which was enough for me. I walked over to her and sat down next to her again the wall.

'' Did you just come out of that cave Fencer-San?

'' Yeah, I heard there were a couple of strong monsters in there. I was hoping i can get enough XP to level up.''

'' You know its not safe to grind on your own, plus its easier and safer with a party. Also if you need any info on the good spawn locations and quests, come to me!''

'' Yeah i know...''

Before she could finish her sentence, I interrupted her. '' By the way, right now the best place to grind mobs are most likely in the several floors of the labyrinth. There is a ton of high level mobs that spawn back quickly.''

I swiped the air with my right hand, causing my menu to pop up in front of me. While scrolling through the options, I sent the player next to me a friend request before I stood up.

" I'm Argo by the way. Sadly, I'm in a bit of a hurry to get this information so Ive got to get going now." She stood up and stared at the friend request.

" So what's your name Fencer-San?" I turn to face her before walking away.

" You can call me Asuna." She responded before accepting the friend request which caused me to smile at her.

" I guess I'll see you around Aa-Chan. Message me if you want any information. Normally I make players pay, but I can give it to you for free." Was the last thing I said to her before walking inside the surprisingly bright cave.

* * *

 _ **December 1 2022**_

 _ **Kirito POV**_

The digital sun was just starting to rise on floor 1. Normally I don't go and visit the Town of Beginnings by myself, but Argo has been busy the past couple of days. Usually I don't have a reason to since most of the better player vendors have made there way to Tolbana. Even Argo has made less trips to the Town where it all started. She still visits the Town to get some information and the death toll for her guide book, but most of her costumers are either in Tolbana or Horunka. The streets were still busy with players and NPCs though. My guess there is at least around 75% of the Aincrad population still in this Town. I wasn't visiting this town for any information or to go to the market. Instead, I was standing in front of this huge curved, black marble wall in the middle of this pathway that leads to the Black Iron Palace. In the middle of the wall towards the top in big bold letters wrote "Monument of Life". Which consisted of a list of dates with usernames underneath them from the players who have died on that specific day in this game. Under the date, November 6, the day this game came out, was a specific name I was looking for, about ten names down the list." Why did you have to do it Coper". I spoke to myself while staring at his name on the board. He was a beta tester, just like myself. Apparently Argo knew him from the beta. He left me to die, but he ended up dying instead. He was foolish enough to attack the fruit on top of the Little Nepenthes, creating a trap for the both of us. But only one of us made it out. After a few minutes of pondering through my thoughts. I was interrupted by a pop up notification in front of me. Argo sent me a message.

" Boss raid meeting today around 16:00 in Tolbana Kii-bou." She sent.

" I'll be there." Sending her a response before closing my menu and turning back to walk out of the Black Iron Palace. " This will be for every one of you that's on that Wall" I spoke loudly as I leave the Palace area. I did get a few stares from other players who heard me while I walked out, but nothing that was out of ordinary.

I drew my eyes toward the top right corner of my visual view to find the time, making sure what time it was so I can plan out my day before the meeting. It'll take me about an hour and a half to reach the floor 1 dungeon. I thought I might as well go grind a bit before going to the boss raid meeting. But I'll take it easy just in case we actually go on the raid after the meeting.

Another sunny day in Aincrad where the streets are busy in the Town of Beginnings. Even though Its still very early in the morning, the streets were still as busy as it can be. There are a ton of players that decided to stay in this town to stay safe instead of risking their lives day in, day out. Having to walk around groups of players just to get out of the town. I even walked by a few younger players playing in the streets that are way to young to be stuck here. That's why we have to keep fighting in this death game. For the people that are not able to fight for themselves. Continuing to walk through the crowded streets, someone caught my eye, Sasha. Seems like she was chasing after the two children running down the busy street. She had stopped and looked like she was out of breath from running. I decided to make my way to her from the other side of the crowded street. She noticed me before I made it over to her.

''Kirito! Hey... Hows it going?"' She says while panting.

"Hey Sasha, I've just been getting myself ready for tonight."

"What's going on tonight?"

" Just the raid meeting for the floor 1 boss, we finally found the boss room. Just stay quiet about it for now, don't want people getting there hopes up in case we don't defeat it."

" I'm sure you all will defeat it! I'll keep my mouth shut for now! " She says with a smile on her face. " Well Kirito I have to go find those two kids before they wander to far. Stay safe out there in the boss raid! And make sure you defeat the boss, for all these people who can't fight for themselves! We all believe in you! " She says before running off into the crowded streets to catch up to the two kids running around.

" I'll defeat the boss myself if I have to for you all Sasha." I mumble to myself as I walk towards the outskirts of town. Finally making my way out of the crowded town, I starting walking to the forest towards Tolbana. Usually its likely to see quite a number of parties that are normally out and grinding to get there levels up. But today was different, I only saw two parties out grinding on my two hour walk to the dungeon. I haven't read any of the news letters that has been put out or the guide book in the past few days. Maybe someone has a letter out to let other players know that someone has finally found the boss room.

During the beta for this death game,this floors boss rooms was the easiest boss room to find out of the first eight floors. Back in the beta, there was only ten floors in each floors Labyrinth, not twenty-five like there is now. Not to mention there was less paths and dead ends in the labyrinths which made it easier to navigate our way through the dungeons. Also the dungeons monsters didn't get tougher to defeat as you get up to the higher floors.

When I walked into this floors labyrinth, there was still no signs of players around the entrance. Making my way floor by floor, stopping a couple times to dispose of a few Ruin Kobald Troopers, but still no signs of any players. Then after making it to the sixth floor of the Labyrinth, I could hear swords clashing in the distance. I started to walk down one of the several winding paths. Luckily most of the mapping has already been done and has been handed out to every player who has a guide book for the first floor. Knowing which path to go and which turn to make at certain times makes it so much easier to get to the next floor of the Labyrinth. While making a turn past a wall, I noticed a player fighting a Ruin Kobald Trooper.

Someone in a scarlet hooded poncho jumped back after dodging one of the attacks from the Ruin Kobold Trooper. Her hood fell back, exposing her long, orangish- brown, chestnut hair. "It was the girl from Liz's shop a few days ago." I mumble to myself as I watch her raise her rapier straight in front of her body and pointing at the Kobold Trooper. That was enough motion to start a Sword Skill. Her rapier turned to a bright silver color. "Linear?" I thought to myself. She jumps forward at the trooper, being to quick for the trooper to parry, she hit the trooper In the chest. She backed up and in a blink of an eye while at the same time she activated the sword skill Linear again, but this time she went towards the Troopers knees, hitting both before the trooper can block her attack. The Trooper swung his one handed Axe at her, but he was to slow. She ducked and dodge his attack. Before the trooper knew it, she activated the sword skill Linear again and already pierced his chest causing the trooper to be knocked back. "She's fast." She activated the sword skill Linear one more time but this time she jumped forward, lunging her shining rapier at his head and hitting her mark. Before she made it to the ground, the Trooper bursts into tiny crystal polygons, creating a cloud around her that slowly dissipated.

After the cloud of crystals dissipated completely, I went ahead and walked out of the dark path towards her. As I got a bit closer to where she was, she noticed I was walking towards her direction and turned to face me. She seemed almost lifeless, barely even able to stand on her own two feet. " Don't you think it's a bit overkill to use Linear fours times in a span of a couple seconds to finish off that Trooper. I mean it wears you down and drains your energy over time." Before she could even respond, she collapsed on the ground and I was to far to keep her from hitting the ground. I run over to her and realized she has passed out. She didn't explode into tiny little crystals, so she's not dead. All of a sudden I hear a loud screech, causing me to look behind me. I stood back up and turned around. A Ruin Kobald Trooper had just spawned behind was only two feet away from me and looking straight down at me. " I hate the spawn system in this game for mobs." I spoke to myself.

I unsheathed my Anneal Blade 6 from it's sheath on my back, holding it in front of me. I put my weight down on my right foot before pulling my sword back. Thus causing my Anneal Blade to turn to a light blueish color. I jump forward at the Ruin Kobald Trooper, slashing my Sword in a Horizontal motion. Slashing across the Ruin Kobald Troopers chest before it can parry my attack. While my sword takes a few seconds to cool down, I jumped back and held my sword in front of me. The now angry trooper ran at me with his battle axe on his right side. When he got closer, He swung his battle axe from his right towards my left side. I was quick enough to react, swinging my sword to my left side to meet his battle axe, parrying his attack. His battle axe got knocked back which opened up a window for me to attack. While my sword is across my left side, I pull my sword back a bit causing it to light up a dark blue from the sword skill Horizontal Arc. I swung my sword from my left across his chest towards the right, slashing across his chest to the right. Then with a flick of my wrist, I swung my sword back across the left, slashing across his chest again with a two hit combo. While the color of my sword dies down, the trooper explodes into tiny crystal polygons in front of me. I swung my sword back to the right before swinging it over my head and back into its sheath on my back.

I turn back behind me and notice the player is still out cold. I walked over to her and looked around to make sure there wasn't any more troopers spawning near us. After I made sure there wasn't, I leaned down picking her up, keeping my arms under her knees and behind her back as I make my way down to the floor below to leave the labyrinth. While going down floor by floor, I tried to avoid all confrontation and avoiding all the troopers agro as I possible could. Even after making my way back down six floors, I still saw no signs of other players. After finally making my way out of the labyrinth, I made my way through the forest and stopped at a very small clearing. I went ahead and lied her down on the ground and lean her up against a tree. I went ahead and found a tree across from her and sat down underneath it before leaning back against it. I opened up my menu with a quick swipe with my right hand and went to my messages. ''Liz might know who she is.'' I spoke to myself.

'' Liz, that player who bought an Iron Rapier from you that night that Klein dragged me into your tent. Do you know her?'' The message wrote that I sent to Liz. But somehow, I got a message back almost instantly from Liz. '' She must not be very busy" I thought to myself.

''Yeah, She liked the rapier and came back and bought five more. what about her Kirito?'' She responded.

" When did she buy them? I just watched her pass out after fighting a trooper in the labyrinth. I got her out of the labyrinth but who knows how long she will be out.'' I got another instant reply from Liz. Just seems odd shes messaging me back this quickly, shes usually super busy.

''Oh my gosh! Is she okay?! Two days ago, I think? Could she have been in the labyrinth this whole time since then? Hope shes ok!"

'' I'll stay by her side until she wakes up.'' Was my last message before I closed my menu and looked at the passed out player.

Hours went by as there was still no sign of her waking up. I even took a quick nap for a bit. After I finally woke up from my small nap I looked up and to the right a tad, looking for the time, it was only 13:40. I looked over at her, she was still passed out.I decided to look around my stats for a bit. With a swipe of my right hand, I opened up my stat menu. After a while of scrolling through my menu, I heard a high pitched sneeze. I swiped my menu to the side for it to disappear in front of me. The player was starting to wake up. At first she stretched her arms around before realizing where she was. She quickly shook her head.

" How did I get here?" She seemed to talk to herself.

" You passed out after fighting a Kobald Trooper." She seemed to jump at my response, not knowing I was there all along. " I had to carry you out of the Labyrinth. You have been out for over 6 hours." She just sat there contemplating what I just said. Then she suddenly jumped up with lightning speed at me and quickly drawing her worn down rapier at my head. All I could do was put my hands out in front of me.

'' What did you do to me!? NO, what did you do to my body?! No one would save me like that in this game without a reason.'' She yelled in anger.

" I didn't do anything! I swear! Please relax and put your rapier away. If you need proof, just message Liz and ask her. ''

She pulled her rapier away and to her side. and looked down at me. '' Your the guy that was being dragged inside her shop that one night.'' She said as she fell to the ground and sat down almost in front of me, leaving her rapier next to her side.

'' Look, I didn't do anything but get you out of there so you wouldn't get killed.''

'' Why did you save me? I had it under control and was content with my outcome." She said as she looked down at the ground.

" You had it under control? You were passed out . How long were you in there grinding anyways?"

" For two days straight."

"Two days! No wonder you passed out from exhaustion."

" I just want to beat this game as fast as possible." She responded as she looked up at the sky.

" Here, you must be hungry." She quickly looked back at me while I swipe my right hand up to open up the menu, going through my inventory to pull out a piece of bread and hand it to her.

" I never liked this tasteless bread." She said as she stared at the bread in her hands.

While my menu was still open, I pull out a bottle from inventory and hold it out to her. "Try it with this."

At first she was hesitant but she tapped her finger on the of the bottle and swiped the same finger across the bread in her other hand. "Cream?"

" Trust me, the bread tastes so much better with it." Before I could even finish my sentence she already ate over half of the bread.

" By the way, if your wanting to beat this game, there is going to be a floor one boss raid meeting in about an hour in Tolbana if you want to go."

After she finished her bread, she started to nod her head.

" If we want to make it on time we should probably start heading back to Tolbana." I say while standing up and wait for her. That's when I thought I heard some rustling in the woods behind me. I turn around to nothing but trees blowing in the wind. " Hmm maybe it was just the wind." I thought to myself.

" You ready? " She said while walking over to me as we both start walking back to town. She stayed quiet during the entire walk back. Not to mention she stayed back a few steps from me. She didn't seem to be in the greatest mood after passing out from exhaustion in the labyrinth. Surprisingly there wasn't any monsters around during the walk back either.

" That cream you said you liked, you get it from a quest. I can show you how to get it." I spoke, trying to stop the silence between us.

" I'm not in this game to eat delicious food." She responded and shut down the rest of the conversation. Silence fell upon us again.

Once we finally reached the market in Tolbana , I turned to her. " You might want to head to Liz's and get her to fix up that rapier of yours, since we have some time before the meeting." I have to go head over to a friend's shop to drop something off. I can just meet you at the meeting. "

" This sword is almost down to zero durability, might be a good idea. Where's the meeting at again?" she responded.

" Its at the amphitheater here. I'll see ya there."

With that, we both head out in different ways. I was making my way to Agils to talk him for a bit until the meeting.

After making my way through the several crowds in the market, I finally made it to Agils tent. As I walked inside, surprisingly there was not even a single costumer inside. Usually they been so busy that both Agil and Silica have been working through most of the night the last few first person to notice that I walked in was Pina. Pina had already flew across to the tent and landed on my shoulder before Silica and Agil knew I was there.

" Kirito, my man. How's it going?" Agil spoke up while I made my way to the counter where they were standing behind.

"The usual, just another day of grinding."

" You know about that, there are a few rumors out in the air about a player with a one handed sword wearing almost all black, grinding on the higher floors of the Labyrinth by himself. Every one is starting to call the player, The Black Swordman. Do you know anything about it? " He said with a slight grin on his face while leaning over the counter to look at me.

" Now Agil, do you normally believe every story you hear. Let me guess, did Klein start bringing it up?" I rubbed the back of my neck.

" Nuh-uh, it's the other one. " Silica spoke up before Agil could respond.

" Ahh so it was Argo. Could've guessed she's selling these rumors to other players."

" I will say, she's made a killing off of Klein by selling information about all these rumors with her persuasions.'' Agil spoke up as his eyes look up and to the right towards where the time usual is at. Maybe he got a message for the boss raid meeting to.

'' You going to the meeting Agil?'' He gave a slow nod before grinning at me. But Silica was as confused as anyone would be if they didn't get that message. Everyone seems to be staying quiet about it. Even if it is kind of a big deal since its been almost two months in this game so far.

" I'm sure they had to invite The Black Swordsman to the meeting as well.'' Agil responds while the sill confused Silica giggles.

'' Its not a true boss raid meeting without The Black Swordsman there."

"Ooooooh! About time someone found the boss room" Silica almost instantly understood what I said. Almost as if a light bulb lit up above her head and brightened the whole room up.

'' Ha ha, well Silica, the shop's yours until I'm back. The meeting should be starting soon. I'll see you there Swordsman.'' Agil was already making his way to entrance of his tent and was the first one to leave out of the both of us.

'' Well I better get going to, Ill see you later Silica. Try not to burn the place down while hes gone. He would get pissed.'' I spoke before turning to the exit and waved to her while my back was facing her.

'' Bye Kirito!'' She said before I walked out in the marketplace and made my way to the amphitheater.

'' I wonder if Klein was invited." I spoke to myself while looking down at the ground as I make my way to the square right outside the amphitheater. Only a few players were out in the square. Most of them have already made there way into the amphitheater. I was oblivious of the girl who passed out in the Labyrinth was leaning against one of pillars right outside the amphitheater. I walked just by her before walking down the steps to get a seat in the back.

* * *

 _ **Argos POV**_

 _ **About an hour before the meeting**_

'' This seems fairly accurate Argo, for someone who wasn't at this boss raid in the beta." He said before closing the guide book I just gave him that had the information on the floor one boss.

" Well I have my sources Diavel-san. Plus I have three other beta testers working on the guide book with me." He chuckled at my response.

" You'll always have my gratitude for everything your doing to help as many players as you can. When will you be updating the guide book with this new information?"

" I'll do it right when you start the meeting, it'll only take a few seconds for it to update into everyone else's guide book.

''Well in that case, I better get going so I can get ready for the meeting. I'll see you there Argo." He said before standing up and walking out of the restaurant we were at.

''Bye Diavel-San. "

Luckily for us, there are only three players on the restaurant until he left. It was myself, Diavel, and an associate of mine. I stood up and made my way to the bar in the restaurant, sitting next to a specific player while i let out a quiet sigh.

" You think he can lead them to victory Argo-Kun? " The player spoke before turning to her.

'' I hope so, he's shown leadership skills in a few raids in the beta and even a few instances in the mapping parties.'' After I finished my sentence, I started to doubt myself.

" Have faith in them Argo- Kun. I'm sure they can defeat the boss.''

" I do, It's just..."

'' If Diavel can't, I'm sure the other beta tester you invited to the meeting is qualified to lead? The one you always talk about when we have these talks. I'm sure you trust The Black Swordsman to get it done.

'' In truth, he is probably the better leader out of the two. He just doesn't mind stepping back if someone else wants to lead.'' I respond while looking away at him to contemplate if I should've chosen him over Diavel.

''I may have to agree with you on that. It was a marvel watching him do what he did on that first day this game came out, putting other peoples lives before his. Players could turn on him for what the other beta testers have done since most players know hes a beta tester. Even if he had nothing to do with it.''

" Stupid Kii-bou" I said while shaking my head side to side.

''How many players did you invite to the meeting Argo-kun?" He changed the topic after noticing my reaction when he brought him up.

"I invited 50 players but five of them have declined already, who knows how many will show up. Only two of them are Beta testers. Would've been three if you accepted but nooooo!'' I glared at him.

"Ive told you already. I have my reasons.''

"Whatever.'' I pouted slightly while looking away.

" Argo-Kun, have you looked into what i asked you about? '' The player asked while sipping his drink.

" You mean about the possibility Kayaba changing a few things from the beta? Then yes, it seems like he has. You were right. I found the cave with the rare stone that was only found on floor 6 in the beta today."

" That's not good.'' He said while moving both his hands in front of his mouth, leaning against them while he contemplated these new findings. " Lets hope your accurate about the info on the floors boss. Or the raid group might be in for a bit of a surprise.''

"What if I am wrong?" I responded with a worried look in my eyes.

"Lets just say, lets hope those two beta testers are smarter than we think. Our future will be in there hands if your wrong Argo-kun.''

Both of us sat in silence for a few minutes. It finally hit the both of us about what could happen if we were wrong. I was at least, he was as calm as ever while sipping his drink slowly.

"Well Argo-kun, you got a meeting to get too, you better get going so your not late.''

I drew my eyes up and to the right at the time. It was fifteen minutes before the meeting would be starting.

"Oh crap, Ive gotta go.'' I responded while quickly getting up and start walking out of the restaurant.

" I'll see you around Argo-kun.'' He said as I started walking away.

"Thanks for everything! HeathCliff-San'' I mumbled to myself as I walked out the door and made my way down the street toward the amphitheater.

The moment I made it to the square right above the amphitheater, I noticed Fencer-san leaning against one of the pillars. She almost seemed to be looking for someone, looking around the square. '' I didn't send her an invite, who told her?'' I thought to myself when i noticed someone caught her attention as she stood straight up off the pillar. I player in all black was waling in her direction but was looking down the entire time, it was Kii-bou. I started to grin at the idea. " He must've told her while they were in the forest together." He didn't even notice her standing there watching him the entire time. " Stupid Kii-bou" I said before walking over to fencer-san. She was just watching his every move, She hasn't even noticed I was right behind her.

''Soooo fencer-san and the Black Swordsman, how interesting!''

She jumped at my words before turning around to face me, giving me an awful glare and making her way to her seat next to Kii-bou.

After the rest of the players made there way into the amphitheater, I decided to stay out above it, near a pillar just in case I needed to leave quickly. Right before Diavel started talking, he looked over in my direction.

* * *

 _ **Kiritos POV**_

" Okay everyone! Lets start taking our seats and get this meeting started. I want to thank everyone for taking a bit of there time to come to this meeting, First off, my name is Diavel, and in this game, the job I gave myself is Knight.'' The blue haired player on the stage starting talking to the crowd. I was able to notice he has a large longsword on his left waist and a kite shield on his back. When he stopped talking, almost the entire crowd started laughing at him for his job.

'' That's so lame dude!'' A player yelled out at him.

'' Dude there's no job system in this game!"

The player on the stage waved his hand to calm down the rowdy crowd.

" Alright guys calm down. Do you want to hear this or not? Right, anyway here's the deal. Our party found the boss room at the top of the dungeon today. Now everyone here has been hand picked out of all the players in Aincrad to be considered the top players in this death game. First, we need to defeat the boss and make it to Floor Two. The next step is we have to tell everyone waiting in the Town of Beginnings that it is possible to beat this game! In truth, it's our duty as the most capable players here!'' Most of the players at this meeting started to clap for Diavel, he even had me convinced.

''Okay, glad to hear you're all with me on this, now let's figure out how we're going to beat the boss. First off, we'll team up into parties of six. A typical party doesn't stand a chance against a floor boss. We need a raid group made up of multiple parties.

At first, I glanced over at Agil. He was in the middle of a party being formed and ended up being the leader of it. I noticed he looked over his shoulder at me and shrugging his shoulders at me. I started to see most players have already formed parties with there friends.

" I guess its just you and me." I looked to my side at the girl from earlier. I didn't even get her name from before.

"That's fine with me, I would think other players would get in our way if we had a bigger party." She responded.

" So your a solo player too? " I asked while swiping my right hand in the air to open up the menu and send her a party request.

" Yep.'' I watched her as the notification popped up in front of her. At first she hesitated for a couple seconds before accepting the request. Then I noticed her health bar popped up below mine with her username next to it. '' Asuna huh?" I thought to myself while noticing Argo was watching us from above the amphitheater. She had this devilish grin on her face while looking at myself and Asuna. She almost makes me feel like I'm either gonna pay for this later or shes gonna make Col on a few more rumors about this.

With the rest of the players at the meeting started to finish up figuring out who the party leaders were going to be. Suddenly a player that's fairly short yet solidly built with spiky cactus like hair ran down the steps of the amphitheater toward the center of the stage. He jumped off the last few steps, landing next to Diavel.

"Hold up a sec! My name's Kibaou, got that? I want to get something off my chest! We all know about the one thousand players who died so far, yeah? Well, I believe some of you need to apologize to them right now!'' The spiky haired player started to yell to the crowd while trying to get out his point.

''You're talking about the players that are ex beta testers, am I right? " Diavel spoke up.

" 'Course I mean them! The day this stupid ass game started, the beta guys just got up and vanished, right? They ditched all us beginners! They snagged all the good hunting spots, and they grabbed all the easy quests too! They were the only ones getting stronger in here. This whole time, they've ignored us like we were nothing. Hell, I bet there are some of them here!Come on out, beta testers!" He started to point out towards the group before crossing his arms in front of his chest. Other players started to look around the group in the silence. Maybe they were trying to see if anyone would stand up against him or not.

"Your wrong! First off only six hundred and fifty players have perished, not a thousand. True Fact! And the majority of them are beta testers!" A girl yelled down at the cactus head. Almost everyone immediately turned around to see who it was, except for myself. I knew who it was instantly. Argo walked out of the shadow of the pillar that kept her hidden. I stood up from my seat. I thought it was the right time to intervene. At first I was looking down. I could feel almost the entire group switched their view to me instantly. Before I started talking, I moved my head up and focused on the spiky hair player.

" You say the beta testers '' ditched '' everyone else. But its the same beta testers that are putting every single piece of information they figured out in the beta in a book that is given out for free in every NPC and player vendor shop! Yeah the guide book! And I'm almost certain every one of us here has one! They are giving out this information to everyone on a free basis! '' I spoke up loudly while not shifting my attention off of Kibaou for a single second. I noticed out of the corner of my eye, a very tall familiar player stand up after I finished talking. I finally shifted my attention towards the now standing player. It was Agil, with his eyes focused on me and cant forget his usual grin.

"Kibaou right?" Agil spoke up while only getting a nod from the spiky haired player for a response.

" Did you forget on that first day, after we all found out what this game really was, that it was a beta tester who came out of the crowd to explain more about this game. Not only did he give out information, but he also exposed himself as a beta tester to almost every single player in the game to give this said info out?" Agil spoke with a sense of calmness in his voice while holding his hand out in my direction when talking about the player.

" That was you?" I heard someone whisper very quietly, it was Asuna. I looked down at her while giving her a small nod with my goofy smile as my response. That's when everyone else in the meeting figured it all out. Almost as if light bulbs flickered on above everyone of there heads.

'' Look Kibaou, None of us came here to point fingers at anyone. I'm here 'cause I want to learn from those players deaths.'' Agil spoke up.

" And I'm here to help avenge those players who have fallen.'' Diavel was the next to respond.

" I'm here to fight for those people who cant fight for themselves in this death game." I said after Diavel finished.

Argo walked down the steps towards where Myself and Asuna were sitting at. Once she made it to where I was standing, she raised her hand and slapped the back of my head. " I'm here to make sure you idiots get the right information to stay safe out there." I was suddenly rubbing the back of my head after that for a couple of minutes.

" Look we all have our reasons for being here, and you have your reasons too. " Agil spoke up while the rest of the crowd started to agree with him.

Diavel walked over to Kibaou and placing his hand on his shoulder." Come on, lets get back to the meeting.'' That was enough for Kibaou to make his way to a seat and calm down a bit. At one point, I thought I saw him looking at me and giving me a nod of approval but I wasn't sure. The few of us sat back down, even argo sat down next to me instead of hiding in the corner.

"For info on the boss, it's all in here, the latest issue of the guidebook you just heard about. According to the book, the boss's name is Illfang the Kobold Lord. Also, he'll be surrounded by his minions, the Ruin Kobold Sentinels. Illfang carries an axe and a buckler. He has four health bars, and when the last one turns red, he switches to a curved sword type weapon called a Talwar. He can change his patterns of attack, too. Alright everyone that's it for the briefing.'' Diavel took a second for the rest of the group to understand. Most of them had thee guide books out and had started reading about the boss.

"As for the distribution of loot, money will be divided equally among everyone. The party that defeats the boss gets the EXP; and whoever gets an item, gets to keep it. Any objections?" He paused for a minute while the group seemed to agree on the terms.

"Good! We leave tomorrow at ten in the morning! Meeting adjourned, people." With that, Diavel closed the guide book that he had opened his hands. Players one by one slowly started to make there way out into the square. Most of them left in groups to go celebrate one last time just in time just in case anything happens tomorrow morning. Before getting up I looked over at Asuna who was already looking at me. I gave her a quick smile before swiping the air with my right hand and sending her a friend request. This time though, she didn't hesitate at all to accept it. Argo, Asuna, and myself stood up after we saw the tall Agil walk over towards us. Both myself and Argo turned towards Asuna when Agil walked up behind us while placing a hand on my shoulder.

"The inns in this town will all most likely be booked tonight. If you want you can stay with us? We have a ton of space at our place. We have a huge kitchen. Also a fairly big living room, and also a bath." I asked her while both Argo and Agil nodded in agreement. Something I said must have caught her attention. It almost seemed like her hair stood straight up, if i could in this game. But she had her hood on. Our conversation got interrupted when a player came up to us, mainly to me. It was Kibaou, the spiky hair player from earlier.

He came over to us and put his hand out to me. " Look I know I can be a pain, but I'll be honored to fight the boss with you tomorrow." I responded to him with a smile and putting my hand out to his, shaking his hand firmly.

" I'll see you tomorrow then Kibaou." I told him before he walked out the amphitheater towards Diavel.

I turned back to Asuna, but before I could say anything she asked me something.

" What was the last thing you said about your rooms?"

"What, about the kitchen?"

She shook her head side to side "Not that.''

''The Bath?" I asked

Before she could respond to me, Argo interrupted us. " Yes we have a bath, By the way Fencer-san , this fool here is Kirito" She pointed at me while I awkwardly waved.

" And this here is Agil." She then turned and pointed to the tall player.

"Whats up" Agil spoke up.

"Nice to meet you all, I'm Asuna."

" Well lets get going before the others start to worry again." Argo said while being the first one to walk up and out of the amphitheater while we follow.

* * *

 _ **Asuna POV**_

"So his name is Kirito, The Black Swordsman." I though to myself as I followed them out of the amphitheater.

" Forget it, I'm more interested in the bath." I mumbled under my breath.

* * *

`Hope everyone enjoyed the new Chapter! If anyone has any knowledge of Sword Art Online, I'm sure you know whats coming next chapter!

I know Ive been a bit slow at putting out new Chapters for you all and Im trying to speed things up a bit. Hopefully my schedule has lightened up to where I can spend more time on this story!

All feedback is welcomed!


	5. Chapter 5

I know, I'm very late on this chapter. Sorry about the wait, I've been super busy. I hope this chapter makes up for it!

Enjoy.

December 1 2022

Asuna POV

After leaving the amphitheater, I followed Kirito with Agil next to me. Walking past a couple group of players that were at the meeting. Most of them looked at us when we walked by, but some didn't bother. Apparently, Argo had to go meet with a player about some business so she wasn't with us at the moment.

"So, Asuna, I see you chose the Rapier class for your primary weapon. I'm guessing you focus on the speed and agility skills?" Agil started a conversation while we walked.

I nod my head in response. " I mainly focus on my Acrobatics and Agility but overall yeah."

" Hmm interesting, I've noticed that there hasn't been many players who have chosen the Rapier class. "

" That might be because the defensive stats for this class isnt all that great. I normally get damage just from parrying simple attacks."

Once we finally made it to the inn, the three of us walked over to the counter where an NPC was standing up. Kirito swiped the air with his right hand, causing the menu for the inn to pop up infront of him. It was blurry for me, but after a few seconds of him going through the menus, he swiped it to the left towards my direction to make it visual for me.

" I gave you access to our room, all you have to do is click accept and you'll be able to get in and out on your own time. Also I gave you access to Liz's, Argos,and Silicas room. I'm guessing you would rather bunk with them over the the two of us."

At first I looked over to Agil, then to Kirito before looking back at the menu and hitting "Accept" with my finger. With that, the menu disappeared in front of us. Agil was the first to walk away from the desk as both myself and Kirito followed.

" Just forewarning you, Klein and his buddies can get loud at times, but don't worry there nice guys once you get to know them. They have access to the room but we had to get them there own separate room in the inn." I saw Kirito look over his shoulder at me while walking down a hallway on the first floor. Kirito stopped in front of a door to a room in the inn which in turn, Agil stopped as well. At first, I didnt notice that they stopped and ended up walking into the back of the massively built player. " Theres no way he's this big out of the game." I thought to myself, hoping he didnt notice I ran into him.

When he opened the door, I followed suit and walked through behind the two closing the door behind me. At first it seemed like a normal room in a normal inn. But as I followed Kirito through the hallway that leads to the living room, I was astonished. It was a very large living room. I swear you could fit almost 100 players in it and have room for more. That's when i saw Lisbeth jump up off one of the couches and walk towards us.

''Asuna! I'm glad these idiots decided to listen to me for once!.'' Lisbeth had an aggravated glare at both of them while they intentionally looked away. " I messaged both of them to ask if you wanted to stay with us, but they ignored my message!" Giving them another glare.

" I just want a bath. He did say they have a bath right?" I thought to myself as she continues to ramble on.

A small, tiny, blue dragon flew into the living room from a different room which caught my attention and snapped me out of my thoughts after watching it fly over to Kirito. To my surprise the bird flew into his chest. He caught it and just held it like it was nothing out of the ordinary. " What the heck is that!?" I thought to myself again and again before looking back at Lis since she finally stopped talking.

" Well thank you for letting me stay here." I respectively bowed my head down at all three of them.

" No need to be so formal with us Asuna!" The pink hair player responded.

" I'm sure the inns in town are filled anyways. " Kirito added.

I noticed Kirito and Agil walk past me towards one of the two couches, Flopping down on them almost as if they are exhausted. The tiny dragon flew back into the other room. I followed Lis when she started walking towards the couch she was sitting at before. But before she could sit back down, Kirito spoke.

"Hey Lis, Asuna was asking about the bath you decided to add to our room. You think you can show her where it is?"

"Finally!" I thought to myself.

I looked over at Lis who nodded in response. " yeah sure! Come on Asuna, it's this way." I followed Lis out of the living room, through a hallway that lead to a double door entrance to a room. Once opened, I could see it was a huge bath house with a big steaming pool of water in the middle of the room.

" Here we are, I made Kirito get it for the room, sometimes it helps to relax a bit after a days work in Aincrad. Though it may not seem the same as the real world. "

Kiritos POV

"Hey, Agil?" I broke the silence while he was sitting there exhausted and just blankly staring up at the ceiling. I can see why Agil is tired, from actually working at his store and making time to go to raid meeting. But me? I'm just lazy, yeah it was a busy day but if I wanted to, I still had enough energy to go grind a bit before calling it quits for the day. I didn't have the chance to do so this morning since some one passed out in the labyrinth.

"What's up Kirito?" At first he was leaning back against the couch with his eyes closed and his head leaned back almost to the point where he was looking straight up at the ceiling. But he leaned forward, almost slouching over a bit to look over at me. He seemed to put so much effort to move out of the position he was in. Even though Its just a game, you can see the exhaustion settling in his facial expressions.

" You notice Klein wasn't at the meeting? I would've guessed he was invited, I mean he is a higher level than you right?"

" He was invited, but there was something about his friends not being allowed to be a part of the raid due to there levels. He made a big commotion earlier today at the shop because he didn't want to leave out his friends."

" That sounds like Klein. He hasn't left his friends side since day one." I instantly thought about the first day we got stuck in this death game when he refused to leave the square until he found them.

" Oh by the way, my level is higher than his now, I just recently went up two levels. He's been focused on getting his friends level up instead of his own lately. So now I'm Level 8 and about half way to the next level."

" Only level 8? You should stop working that shop of yours and go level up a bit." I respond to Agil while having a grin on my face. All he did was give me a dirty look before darting his eyes away from me.

" Is that So? Then what's the level of the mighty Black Swordsman." Silica joined the conversation while she walked past me and sat in between both myself and Agil. Pina was already following Silica before laying in her lap after she sat down. Agil couldn't help but to sit up, look back over at me and grin at me over Silica, all while waiting for an answer. I hesitated for a bit, trying to avoid giving them an answer while running my hand against the back of my neck.

"So what is it gonna be Black Swordsman? What has your level hit up to?" Agil spoke up while continuing to give me that devilish grin that hasn't escaped his face since Silica joined us. I had to look over in the opposite direction to avoid both of their glares. Yet i can understand why they want to know, but yet I also can think of a few good reasons not to tell them. Some things are best to keep quiet about. Not even a minute has passed and something caught my attention almost immediately. Which caused me to jerk my head back to the two glaring at me. But it was the person who was behind them, leaning against the wall with the same devilish grin as the other two on her face. Someone got in the room without any of us even knowing.

'' I can easily tell you the Black Swordsmans level... for a small fee of course...'' She walks up to all of us on the couches and taking a seat on the other side of where I was sitting. Which was the opposite side of where the other two were sitting. I will say she did quickly wipe the other twos grins off their face. But then again, how did she find out my level? How long has she been there?

'' Awhh come on Argo-san, that's not fair!'' Silica was the first to speak up.

"Everything's fair for a price Si-chan.'' Argo still had that devilish grin on her face. Almost as she knew she was up to no good.

'' How can we be sure you know it? " Agil responded. He thought the only way to beat her at her game was to outsmart her.

"Well about that... I don't.'' She sat back against the couch and seemed to avoid the angry glares from the other two in the room.

'' WHAT! How could y...'' Silica spoke until I interrupted her.

''13"

Even though my eyes were closed, I can feel all the attention and glares switch back over to me instead of Argo.

''WAHHH"

Almost seemed to be an unanimous response from all three. After I open my eyes, I realized what had happened. All four sets of eyes were staring at me including Pina. Agil had stood up with the expressions of awe in his movements and facial expressions. Then there was Silica, she had fallen a bit on the couch, propping herself up with her jaw dropped. Pina was also staring at me as if she knew what we were talking about. Could Pina understand us? After turning towards Argo to see her reaction. She had a more confused look on her face. She was on the verge of excitement that someone was that high of a level already but confused at how I gotten such a high level already.

'' Ugh, whats all the commotion in here?" Lis spoke up while walking back into the room with Asuna by her side. Lis some how went to the kitchen without us noticing. Both her and Asuna had cups of some kind of warm tea to drink from.

'' Whats going on?'' Asuna was the next to ask upon looking at every ones surprised reactions.

" Ask the Black Swordsman." Argo was the first to snap out of her thoughts to respond while pointing at me. After that, Agil jumped out of it too and found his way back to his seat on the other side of Silica. Silica got back up and sat straight up as usual with her well mannered self.

" Whats going on Kirito? " Lis responded.

" Well they made a big deal about my level. So i told them." I shrugged my shoulders after noticing Argo giving me a glare out of the corner of my eye.

''Its his level that's the problem.'' Agil spoke up

'' Then what is it?'' Asuna responded to Agil before everyone looked back at me for the answer. After a minute or two of dead silence throughout the room and almost every pair of eyes staring at me, I decided to respond.

'' Almost 14. I was hoping the XP from the coming boss raid will help me jump up a level." That was the moment Lis dropped her cup, causing it to shatter into tiny crystal polygons and dissipate into thin air. Both Lis and Asuna seem more surprised than the other three did.

''Now you know why we reacted like we did Lis.'' Silica pointed out while she directed her attention to the two girls that made there way to spots on one of the couches to sit on.

" Oh Kii-bou, I got a message for you. Someone wants to buy your Anneal Blade.."

'' What? Are you serious? I cant do that, at least not before the raid battle.'' I responded.

''It would be almost suicide to go into the boss raid without one of the more stronger weapons on floor 1.'' Agil spoke up.

" Is it someone from the raid party? Who would try to do this? " Asuna spoke up before everyone's attention was now focused on Argo.

" I cant tell you. "

After her response, every one stayed silent. But I went ahead and opened up my menu with a swipe of my right hand. Every one was to focused on Argo to notice what I did. Only a few seconds went by before a pop up opened in front of Argo. It was the trade request I just sent to her with an undisclosed amount of Col. Luckily with how the system works, unless she changes it to an open view, she will be the only one to see how much I put on there. Her eyes looked up and met with mine before she looked back down at the request before accepting the trade. The room filled with silence for a minute or two as the others realized what had happened.

" So, who was it?"

Argo looked over at me before shaking her head side to side. "I can't tell you his player name Kii-bou. But he has blue hair and he wields a Scimitar. Also he was willing to offer around 40,000 Cor."

"40,000 Cor? That's a ton of Cor for just one sword. " Silica spoke up while astonished at the price the player offered.

" Blue hair? Diavel?" Asuna spoke up before looking over towards Argo.

Argo shook her head side to side again. "No it wasn't him, he introduced us. So probably a friend of his?"

" Oh well, it doesn't matter. You can let him know I don't plan on selling my sword Argo."

" Alrighty Kii-bou, I'll go let him know. I'll be back later. " After the formal goodbyes to everyone, she went on her way and left our room in the inn.

After talking about the upcoming raid for a bit, it didn't take long for the others to fall asleep. It was fairly late and from what I heard from Agil, apparently his shop was busy almost up to the time of the raid meeting while it pretty much died down after that. Both himself and Silica have fallen asleep on the couch not long after Argo left. Pina was also fast asleep, but was surprisingly laying on top of Agils bald head. I never knew a bald head could be comfy. Liz was at least able to shuffle and stagger her way to her room. She seemed like she was gonna fall asleep while trying to walk but thanks to the wall she was leaning on the entire time she was walking, she was able to make it to her room.

Even though everything around us are just digital numbers, from our bodies to the walls around us, everything. We all still get very exhausted just from a normal day of surviving in this death game. Normally I struggle to fall asleep. But tonight, especially for a night before the boss raid, I'm finding it hard to fall asleep. Too many thoughts are running through my mind about the raid that I'm struggling to even get tired. I can remember most of what happened in the raid on floor one in the beta. From the players who participated in the raid, to the boss itself, and I can't forget about the Last Attack Bonus. Im sure most of the players from that raid aren't around anymore. Not to mention I didnt see anyone who seemed familiar with the Boss in the meeting earlier.

" Its still a little over an hour and a half from being midnight. I might as well go see if I can keep myself distracted for a bit in the field right outside of town." I thought to myself. After very quietly making my way through the room around both Agil and Silica, I was finally able to get to the door. Surprisingly, once I made my way out of the inn and to the streets, there were still quite a bit of players from the raid meeting out and about. I decided to walk down the street that leads to the path that leads to the Floor 1 Labyrinth. There is a huge open field right outside of town that normal has a ton of higher level mobs that spawn at night. The path to the labyrinth goes right through the middle of the field before hitting the dense forest. Normally most players end up coming back before night fall so they don't have to deal with all the higher level mobs that end up spawning around that area. Usually there is no one around that area at this time of night. There were several groups of players that were from the raid standing outside the inn. Not to mention the several NPCs that walk around at night.

" Hey! Wait up!"

Even though there were several people around me in the streets, I still had a feeling that was directed towards me. It stopped me dead in my tracks. That voice did sound familiar, but yet I couldn't figure out who it was without looking. After turning around to see who it was, it clicked. Someone in a dark red, hooded tunic with brown chestnut hair.

''Oh, hey Asuna. Wait were you follo..." I spoke up before I got interrupted by her. I was a bit ahead of her but it didn't take her long to catch up to me since I waited for her.

" Where are you going Kirito? Shouldn't you be getting some sleep for tomorrow?''

Argo POV

"You know, you shouldn't be following me while I'm out working. You could scare away my customers." Normally it would freak me out if someone was following me. But he doesn't seem as harmful as his appearance might suggest.

" Yeah I know, but I saw you from across the street so I decided to come see what you were up to."

" Yeah, Yeah, Heathcliff-san."

Since the player I was dealing with before he showed up has left, we continued to talk for a bit before leaving the small restaurant in Tolbana. Usually there is barely anyone out at this time but NPCs, but tonight was different. Most of the players that were out and about, were at the meeting earlier today. Most players were having one more night of fun before they all risk there lives the next day. Even though Heathcliff-san was talking to me, I could barely stay focused enough to hold conversation. To many "What ifs" were going through my mind that prevented me from paying attention to him. What if my information is completely wrong? We could lose a ton of great players. We could lose our friends.

The moment we walked out of the small restaurant, I looked down both ways of the street to help gather my thoughts. But then someone caught my eye. I lost all my train of thoughts almost instantly started to completely ignore Heathcliff-san who was continuously asking me a questions. Apparently he noticed that I ignored him and was looking in the same direction I was staring off at of not one, but two players. He didn't realize my focus was on the two players standing in the street.

" Argo-kun?" Heathcliff tried snapping me out it.

" Kii-bou?" I mumbled under my breath. Heathcliff somehow heard me and looked over at the two players.

"Ahh, so that's the Black Swordsman you've been talking about." I didn't respond but all I could do was nod my head in agreement.

" He's shorter than what I was expecting."

Not even a minute later, another familiar person came behind us. " Hey Argooooo! What are y'all up to?" Before I could turn around, I felt him pat the top of my hood.

" Oh hii Klei-bou." After turning around, it was fairly obvious who it was. A player with red hair wearing a bandana that's a darker shade of red than his hair around his head. With Klein being a bit taller than I am, it was easy for him to look past me to where we were looking at. Both the players started to walk down the street towards the edge of town.

" If y'all guys are stalking Kirito, COUNT ME INNN! Wait thats the girl from Liz's shop the other day." Klein spoke up while we all switched our attention back to the two players. Which still seem to be walking into the direction of the huge field right outside of town.

"Well we better get going if we want to follow them." Heathcliff responded to us. All we had to do was nod our heads in agreement to let him know we were thinking the same thing. We continued to follow them, but stayed back enough that they wouldn't be able to notice us. At the end of the street there is a gate that leads to a dirt path to the labyrinth. The gate is used to let players know where the safe zone starts and ends. We stayed close to the gates in case we had to hide if they saw us. Lucky they didn't venture to far from the gates.

" Huh, that's something I didn't expect to see." Heathcliff was the first to respond after seeing the two players in the field. All three of us were astonished. Both Kirito and Asuna were fighting a mob of large Dire Wolves. There was around 8 in total but they were stronger compared to a normal Dire Wolf. But what was surprising was there speed and in sync switches that was blowing our minds. Both haven't fought together before ans have just met each other today but yet, they both have an understanding of when to switch down to the last second. Kirito was the one in front getting the attention of the Wolves and blocking there first attacks. Asuna was quick to jump in between them, dealing lethal blows one after the other. They didnt take any breaks between attacks and just kept switching from Dire Wolf to Dire Wolf. After the last Dire Wolf was defeated, a pop up menu opened in front of both of them. Kirito quickly swiped to the right with his fingers to close it, but Asuna seemed to stall a bit before closing hers to open up another menu in front of her. Only a few seconds went by until a different rapier from the one she was holding formed in her hand.

"Looks like somebody got a good drop from that last wolf! "Klein spoke quietly.

The new rapier that she was holding had a green guard and a lighter shade of green that followed up the entire surface of the thin blade. The color of her rapier was so bright, it almost seemed to glow in the darkness. It didn't take her long to give it a try. At first she swung it a few times by her side in a quick pace before quickly getting into stance, pointing the sword in front of her, and twisting the blade just slightly which caused the entire blade of the sword to turn to a bright silver that had brightened up almost the entire field . She lunged forward with incredible speed, but she continued with the motion again and again. I lost count how many times she did, but most likely around four or five times.

"Linear is so OP when its paired with a quick rapier to go with it." Klein spoke up with both Klein and Heathcliff starting to turn around to walk back into town before I followed suit.

" They should be interesting to watch over time." Heathcliff mumbled under his breath but since I was close enough to him, I was able to hear it all. I decided not to respond to him and act like I didn't hear a single word he said.

December 2, 2022

Asunas PoV

Almost everyone that was at the meeting yesterday has gathered in the same plaza that the meeting was at. As usual, there was still 5 minutes before we headed out to the labyrinth so there were a few players that were waiting till the last minute to show up. Figures it would be a party member of mine that hasn't showed up yet. Most players were in there parties making sure they have all they need, from upgraded weapons and a weapon for a back up. To health potions, almost all players that are here by now should have at least a few. While leaning against the pillar checking out the stats of my newly found partner _Wind Fleuret,_ Agil was finishing up talking to his party about there part of the plan. Diabel was talking to a few of the party leaders with the guide book in his hand. They were most likely finishing out a few details about the raid. A few minutes go by and still no signs of my only party member, maybe he slept in? Before long, I noticed Agil walking over towards my direction.

"Whatchya got there Asuna?''

'' Just my newest partner. Here have a look.'' With one swipe with my hand, I transferred the menu I was looking at across to Agil. The menu showed the stats for the _Wind Fleuet._

" Planning on replacing Kirito with this?" He grinned at me and rubbed his chin while looking over the stats of my new rapier.

" Oh I wish! Atleast this partner will always be there on time."

'' Hmm, The speed and accuracy stats on it are insane. Looks like you upgraded the rapier already.''

" Kirito suggested I should before the battle. I upgraded three times in accuracy and one in durability.''

" Good choices in upgrades! Talking about him, shouldn't Kirito be here by now." Agil spoke up.

" Maybe The Black Swordsman got scared and decided to stay out of the raid." A player with blue hair came over to us and forced himself into our conversation. When he walked up next to Agil, he pat Agils back once. The confused and awkward expression that set in on Agils face had me giggle. From the look on Agils face, it seems like he didn't know him either. It definitely was not Diavel, but similar in looks.

"Nahh, he wouldn't mi..." Agil at first responded to the blue haired player but was cut off by a familiar face who walked up to all of us.

" You were saying? " A player had made his way to us without any of us even noticing. It was Kirito. Kirito made complete eye contact with the blue haired player, watching him rage in his own thoughts.

" Whatever...'' The blue hair player mumbled under his breath, before walking away from the group grunting out of frustration.

'' Glad you finally decided made it Kirito, minutes before we head out to the labyrinth .'' Agil said seconds before we were interrupted again. But this time the entire group went silent.

"EVERYONE! We are about to head out! Make sure you have everything you need! From health potions, to extra weapons and equipment. If you have forgotten something, let your group leader know now so we can wait for you!"

Everyone started to talk again, even Kirito was asking Agil something, but I was fazed from almost everything around but for one thing. I noticed Argo on the streets right outside the square where we were all supposed to meet up and leaning against the wall. But she seemed to be preoccupied and was writing something out in a book while looking up into the crowd every few seconds into the group of players who were all ready for the raid. '' What is she doing?" I thought to myself. Before long, players started to walk past us.

"Alright everyone! Now that everyone is ready, lets head out to the labyrinth!" Diavel yelled out to the raid group and motioned on with his hand for everyone to follow suit. Luckily it was only a 30 minute walk through a dense forest to get to the entrance of the labyrinth. Most of the walk there, players were staying in there groups and going through there strategy for the raid while Diavel was still up from leading the walk to the labyrinth with Kibaou right by his side. I decided to stay by Kirito in the back of the group while we both were continuously looking at out stats for our primary weapons.

" So did you have time to go upgrade that new rapier of yours Asuna?" He stayed quiet most of the walk there as did I. He caught me a bit off guard as I was so focused on the pop up in front of me to even notice he said something to me.

"Asuna?"

"S..Sorry, what was that?" I swiped the menu in front of me away as i shook my head side to side quickly, snapping out of my trance again after he finally caught my attention.

" Did you upgrade your new rapier?"

"Yeah, I only had enough materials to upgrade it four times though. Three in Accuracy and one in Durability. "

"Nice, that should make for a strong weapon."

After the group finally reached the entrance to the labyrinth, it was fairly easy to navigate up floor by floor due to having most of the dungeon mapped out. We set out one party a bit ahead of the group to deal with the labyrinth monsters in our path. Once we made it to the door that leads to the boss room, we all decided to take a few minutes to get ready. The seven party leaders were finalizing the small details about the scheme for the raid after hearing them over the group. When to switch, when to attack, when to pull back to safety. and also when to retreat. They made the rule if the majority of players health gets in the red, or if we lose over five players, we will retreat. But not long after, everyone was interrupted and looked over by the huge door in front of us. Both myself and Kirito were in the back of the group. I couldnt help but stare at the two huge doors in front of the group. The design and details on the entire door were unique. But had an odd aura about it. Almost as if it reeked of death.

"Everyone!'' Almost everyone's attention switched over to the blue haired player standing in front of everyone.

''Lets get this Floor Boss! For the outside world! Lets WIN!'' Most of the crowd cheered him on while the others stayed focus as we were getting ready for the battle.

All of us followed in line while our blue haired leader opened the door. He drew his sword and pointed to the direction in front of us in the opposite side of the room where the Boss was sitting.

" Start the attack!" Everyone ran in towards the boss that finally stood up with his minions in the 20 meters wide and 100 meters length room. Four health bars formed above the Boss with a name above them. " Illfang The Kobold Lord" The lord pulled out a huge Bone Axe with one hand and a normal looking Leather shield with the other before starting to run straight at us head on. Running in front of the boss was three humanoid looking monsters with maces made out of bones as well.

"Squad A, run past the minions and start the attack on the boss! Squad B get ready to block the bosses attack for Squad A and C! Squads D, E, and F, focus on the minions!"

With that, I followed Kirito towards the minion on the left side of the room that is already running toward us. Kirito ran a bit ahead if me to get the attention of the minion. The Sentinel was quick to react, pulling the mace to the right side of his body before starting to swing across his body at chest height, in the direction of Kiritos side. At first, Kirito seemed off pace to defend the attack. But within a second or two, he adjusted the direction of his body before swinging his sword across to the other side of his body, meeting the Sentinels mace directly below the head of the mace. With that, the Sentinel was pushed back a step or two which gave me an opening. I quickly ran past Kirito while moving my new rapier straight in front of me, causing it to turn to a glowing silver color before quickly lunging into the Sentinel, hitting him in the chest. My hit caused the Sentinel to take a step back but had already started to swing his mace across body towards the left. The minions mace glowed a lighter shade of blue as it was swung towards me. Kirito jumped infront of me at the last possible moment with his sword also glowing blue since he has already started the Horizontal pre motion, his sword meeting the Sentinels mace.

" Squad C get ready to switch!"

I can hear multiple swords clashing together from the other two squads being occupied with the other two minions. Thanks to the almost completely full armor set on the Sentinels, they were able to stay in the fights a bit longer than we anticipated. Most of my hits made there marks against its chest armor, but we have yet to make the final blow to the minion we were dealing with.

'' Aim for the throat next switch.''

Kirito moved in front of me to confront the minion. After noticing the Minion decided to attack first, swinging his bone mace towards Kirito. With the first few blocks he made, he had pushed the monsters mace to the side. But this time, Kirito moved his sword downward, swinging his sword upward to meet the bone mace. The block caused the minions mace to swing upwards over his head. This made the minion take a couple steps back and with the weight of his mace, the minions head tilted back as well. His throat was clearly visible now. I quickly jumped in front, yet again holding my Rapier straight out in front of me before it turned to a bright silver color. With one quick motion, i lunged forward and quickly stabbed the minion with the end of my rapier before jumping back next to Kirito. We watched the Sentinel explode into tiny crystals while the cloud slowly disappeared in front of us.

The other two squads that were tasked with handling the Sentinels noticed how we dealt out final blow to the minion. Thus it didn't take long for them to finish dealing with there own minions after finding out their weak spot.

'' Squad B! Jump in now!"

From that response, I looked up quickly in the direction towards the boss. Squad B had just jumped in between an exhausted squad A and a very ticked off floor boss.

"Agil!" I shout out when the Bosses Bone Axe has swung downwards towards both squads. Three of the tanks from squad B were quick to block off the attack with Squad C jumping in to replace the exhausted squad A. Squad C were not wasting any time to start their attack. One player was in the middle of the sword skill Horizontal, slicing at one of the Bosses ankles. Another player had made there way behind the boss, he held a one handed curved sword right above his shoulder before his sword started to glow a bright orange. I haven't seen this sword skill before. A few seconds later, the player lunged towards the boss with his sword straight out in front of him. The player hit his mark, the player cut across the back side of the bosses knee. Illfang quickly dropped down to one knee from the attack. But the attack wasnt enough to slow down the angry floor boss. The Boss raised his Axe high in the air before swinging downwards with pace towards the ground, quickly hitting his Bone Axe down on the ground. The impact of the hit caused both the players to get thrown back from the force. I also noticed their HP dropped into the yellow from the impact. When the boss stood back up, his first health bar exploded into tiny crystals above the boss. It didnt take long for the three minions to spawn. Luckily the three minions spawned on the edge of the room and not in the middle of our raid party. Kirito was the first to start running over to the newly spawned Sentinels. I followed suit with the two other squads behind me, but the spiky haired player caught up to the both of us fairly quickly.

"You two get the one on the far left, I'll go center." Kibaou spoke to us before changing his direction towards the minion he was going for.

Kirito was the first to look over at him before looking back at me. Both of us started to head towards the Sentinel on the left away from Kibaou.

"Alright Asuna, lets finish this in one attack and move to the next one. "

Once we were only a few feet away from the Sentinel, Kirito kept his sword in his right hand, but moved his sword across his body to his left side and pointed it downwards at an angle. Right before making it to the minion, Kirito had leaned to the left, putting all his weight on his left foot when it hit the ground. His sword started to glow a light blue while it stayed across his body on his left side. The Minion was also quick to respond, swinging his bone mace at kirito, but Kirito was too quick for the minion. He swung his Anneal Blade across his body as it glowed a bright blue, meeting with the minions mace. But instead of blocking the attack, Kirito continued with his attack, slicing through the shaft of the bone mace, cutting it in half at the middle of the shaft before quickly jumping out of the way. I quickly switched with Kirito while holding my rapier straight in front of my chest, my rapier turned to a bright silver while starting the sword skill Linear. As I jumped up, i quickly lunged my rapier forward at the minions weak spot, his neck. After my first lunge hit its mark, I quickly moved my rapier back to my chest and starting the same sword skill over again. I lunged my rapier at the minion, piercing its throat again before pulling my rapier to my chest one more time as my Wind Fleuret continues to glow a bright silver. Thrusting the end of my rapier towards the minions throat, slicing into the my target before it suddenly explodes into crystals around me while I land back on the floor.

''To the next one, the other two groups are still a ways away.''

I waited till Kirito ran past me to start following him while trying to keep a few feet back to give him room for the attack. We ran past Kibaou while he parried with the Sentinel he is dealing with to get to the other Sentinel. Kirito moved his sword across his body again and held it downwards at an angle. The minion was the first to attack, swinging his bone mace across his body from his left side. Kirito swings his sword across his body while it glows a bright blue. His sword met the bone mace, pushing it aside, giving me enough time to jump in and switch with him. It didn't take long for the other two parties to show up, with Kibaou's squad helping them finish off the other Sentinel. Ten minutes passed since we defeated the three sentinels. The main attack force has been dealing major damage to the floor boss with each coordinated attack. Before long, another health bar had vanished above the floor boss. With that, the third and final wave of Sentinels spawned. For Kirito and myself, it only took three quickly maneuvered switches to finish off our Sentinel, but it was a different story for the other two parties. Kibaou had told his party to hold back so he can take the Sentinel on himself. He ended up continuously parrying with the minion and not dealing any significant damage until his squad went against his orders and helped him. The other squad was a bit more efficient on there style of attack. They had two players who continuously blocked and parried the Sentinels attack while the rest of the squad attacked between the sentinels attack but not going for any weak spots.

" Squad A and C, both jump in together to attack once Squad B parries the attack! Continue with this until his last health bar hits red! Support Teams Get ready to Switch on my say if anything happens!" After watching several squad switches later, the bosses last health bar went down fairly quickly. The exact moment the bosses health bar hit red, Illfang jumped back a bit from the raid group, screamed out in anger as he threw both his bone axe and shield out away from him. Both caused the floor to shake underneath our feet when they hit the floor.

" Squads A,B, And C! Hold! I got this...'' The blue haired leader yelled out to the group before holding out his sword in front of him and running in front of the group. The boss reached behind his back, pulling out his curved great sword and holding it out infront of him.

The two closest players to me was my partner Kirito and the Spiky haired player Kibaou. We were a bit futher away from the floor boss than the rest of the raid group since we recently got done with the last group of Sentinels. The main attack force was between us and the Floor boss which obscured our vision to whats happening. Only a second or two later after we watched Diavel run past the main attack force, we were able to see a gold light coming from the other side of the main group. Another second later, a red light dimmed out the gold all while the red light sliced upwards through the air with Diavel being thrown in the air on the end of it. He was thrown about half the distance of the entire room, over the main attack force and the support parties.

"Diavel Nooo!" The spikey haired player was the first to run over to where Diavel had landed with Kirito and myself following suit. Once the three of us reached him, Kirito was quick to pull out a health potion. " What were you thinking!?" The health bar above his head has already hit the yellow and is dropping rapidly. Diavel, without pause, pushed Kiritos hand with the potion away.

" Your the only chance we got left... you were at the raid in the beta.. You must defeat it.. for everyone here." Diavel spoke in a hushed tone to Kirito while his health bar had dissipated. About ten seconds later Diavel exploded into tiny crystals before disappearing into thin air.

The Boss started to run towards the other players with immense speed. Running from squad to squad, swinging his huge curved sword at any player in his path. Most of the players did what they could to block the attacks. The few that could, got a hit on their health from the strength in his swing, while others who got hit dead on, started to lose health quickly and even a few got flung across the room. With each attack, the boss was using a double motioned attack, swinging once hoping the player blocks or dodges it with a second swing to counter the block. While most players either were running to safety or defending the bosses attack with there lives, Agil was quick to run to where the three of us were at in the midst of all the chaos.

" Whats the plan guy's?..."

* * *

Kirito POV

The three of us looked up from the floor towards the big tank.

" We cant give up now, we are so close!" The chestnut haired player spoke up.

" Shes right, we cant stop now. Agil, try to get the players who are still able to fight on and have them to help the injured players to the back of the room by the door. Get them away from the battle."

"I'm on it!" He quickly turned around, running back into the chaos. " Alright guys! Anyone whose health isn't in the yellow or lower, Man the hell up! Help the injured to the back of the room! " Most players took his response well, by getting to safety and several players jumping in to block the bosses attacks to let the others get away from him.

"And the Boss?" Kibaou was quick to respond. I turned to look at the boss, watching him continuously run from group to group, slashing at everything he can.

"Well..." I quickly grab my sword off the ground before standing up. " The three of us are gonna keep it busy until the injured are safe."

"The three of us?..." The fencer was quick to question while glaring over at the spike haired player. " Move it guys!" The big tank continued to do everything he can to help the injured.

" The boss has a two swing combo that he uses and the second swing can be unpredictable. First Kibaou, your gonna block the first attack, and then switch with me so i can block the second attack,then Asuna switches in for the damage."

"So a three person switch.. " Asuna spoke up. Kibaou was quick to react, standing up and started running towards the chaos."Well lets get to it Black Swordsman. Clear a path for the lady!" I was quick to follow behind him, keeping my sword in my right hand. We were a bit ahead before Asuna got up and started running with us. Although, with her build and style, she caught up to us rather quickly. The players running the other direction tried to get our attention, waving at us to stop.

When we were the closest players to the boss, his head turned to our direction, and in a split second, his eyes flashed bright red before running towards us with his curved sword held out to the side, getting ready for an attack. When we got close, his sword turned and started to swing downwards toward Kibaou. He swung his one handed sword in front of his body, holding it with both hands as the curved sword met with his. Kibaou held his ground as he got pushed back a few inches and his health bar dropped just the slightest. Illfang pulled his sword back to his side which gave me enough time to switch and jump in front of Kibaou. I held my sword out from my side, watching the boss swing his curved sword towards me. I quickly put the weight of my body down on my left foot causing my sword to turn to a bright blue and starting to swing my sword upwards at an angle across my body to meet the bosses weapon. Instead of trying to just block his attack, i continued with all my strength to swing my sword and push Illfangs sword back. This caused the Boss to stagger back a bit to catch his footing, leaving an opening to attack. While being the quicker of the three of us, it only took half a second for Asuna to run by me with her Rapier in front of her with it shining a bright silver. We watched on as she jumped up jabbing at the bosses chest three to four times at a quick pace before Illfang got back in stance for an attack. The three of us looked above the bosses head towards his health bar, watching it drop so slightly, almost hitting the bottom of the bar.

" Damnit! So close!" The spiked haired player pointed out to us.

" Again!" I spoke up while we moved our attention to the boss instead of his health bar.

It didn't take long for the Boss to have started his attack again, swinging his curved sword down towards the three of us. The spiky haired player jumped back in front, blocking the attack, but his footing was off causing him to slip just slightly. While i was trying to run past him for the switch, something hit me, I instantly fell to the ground while being pushed back a few feet across the floor along with Kibaou. Both of us looked at each other before looking down, seeing a large red slash mark across the length of our chests. Both of us looked to our left, watching our health bars slowly drain down to the yellow. Asuna had been stopped in her path, looking back at us while also watching the health bar of her other party member in the corner of her view. I looked past her, watching the boss getting closer to her by the second. She was the closest player to him, being the only player in his path. " Asuna!" I yelled out trying to get her attention, but I was to little to late. She looked behind her, watching the curved sword fall down towards her, watching her close her eyes and hold her rapier above her head. Another second later, a bright green light seemed to cover the area where she was standing. Agil had jumped in front, meeting the curved sword with his gigantic battle axe, blocking the bosses attack while using his strength to push the bosses sword back. Asuna was quick to see the opening, jumping up with her rapier shining a bright yellow, swinging her rapier up diagonally across the bosses stomach before jumping away from any possible sudden attack. The Bosses heath bar dropped even more but hes not out yet. Kibaou was quick to grab a health potion and was already in the middle of using it. Instead, I quickly got up and ran at the gigantic boss, running past both Asuna and Agil. The boss was quick to pull his sword up while focusing on me, but this time, his sword started to glow a dark red before swinging it down towards to me. At the last second I jumped to the side, watching his sword hit the ground a few inches away from where I was. His sword had sliced into the ground, creating a cloud of dust around us while the color of his sword dimmed down. With that I held my sword up above my head while moving my feet to a wide stance, causing my sword to turn a dark blue while starting the sword skill Vertical Arc which in turn caused the dust cloud to glow blue. I sliced downwards across the bosses leg before jumping up, swinging my sword upward. Slicing through the bosses chest out to the top of his shoulder, leaving a gigantic digital red gash almost up his entire body. I fell to the floor, unable to catch my footing, falling onto my side before moving onto my knees with the dust cloud dissolving. With the dust cloud gone, the Boss just stood there, completely still, with the huge gash throughout the height of his digital body exposed to everyone with me below him kneeling on the ground. Silence has surrounded the room, with what seemed like everyone's attention was on the boss and myself. After a second or two went by, the Boss exploded into tiny blue crystals. In almost an instant, the silence was gone with almost everyone in the room cheering. Another second went by before a message popped up in the middle of the huge room before everyone had a pop up box open in front of them.

 **"Congratulations!''**

''We did it..."


End file.
